Blood of the elemental hero
by copyninja Kakashi
Summary: What if naruto had the powers of the nine tailed foxs tails? what if he controled the elements to his will?watch as he goes through life as a hero snd savior of the village of the leaf naruhina others a possibility
1. Bloodline discovered, a new path!

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto if I did naruto wouldn't be as dumb, there would be a lot more blood, we would know who narutos family was, and he and hinata would be together from day one.

Summary: What if each of the Kyuubi's tails controlled a different element. What if the rumors of Kyuubi's tails causing tsunamis, tornadoes, and mountains to be destroyed were true because he controlled that element? What if each demon's tail controlled an element such as Shukaku controls sand. What if when Naruto had the Kyuubi sealed inside of him he got the Kyuubi's elemental powers as well, but he needed to learn to control it. Watch as Naruto discovers his powers and takes control of his life to get stronger and become a legend to all the villages of the shinobi world. (AU) Powerful, smart, Naruto

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Fire and smoke was the first thing he saw and screams were all he heared, the forest of Konohagakure was burning. Next he saw whole trees felled by a giant tail and groups of ninja being thrown around like leaves in a breeze. Bodies of fallen leaf ninja were lying everywhere as many more continued to fall. All of a sudden a giant paw fell in front of him and as he looked up he saw piercing red eyes looking down at him and teeth that were the size of large trees. The giant head reared back and rushed forward then everything went black.

In an orphanage, a young boy suddenly woke up wide-eyed and breathing hard. The boy had strange whisker like marks on his face and bright blue eyes like the sky after a storm. His hair was wild and untamed as if a brush had never touched it, it was an unusual deep sun colored rich blond. He was an average height for a four year old. The boy's name was Naruto and he lived in the village hidden in the leaves, Konohagakure.

He was a peculiar child. He didn't have any friends except the Sandaime who visited him once in a while, the owners of the Ichiriku ramen stand and his teacher Iruka. For some reason unknown to the 4 year old he was always neglected by the caretaker's at the orphanage and the adults always hated him. He was a good little boy and polite but the adults never looked at him with anything but hate and disgust.

'That damn dream again' Naruto thought to himself lying back down on the bed. As long as he could remember, Naruto had always dreamt of, to lack of a better term, a monster attacking the village and this dream always woke him up at least once a week.

Naruto had actually asked the Hokage what this dream meant but the Hokage would always change the subject. After a while Naruto decided it was just another part of life and stopped asking.

He walked over to a wall and checked what day it was. It was his birthday today and although he didn't have any parents or many friends to celebrate with he loved and cherished the time he had alone. This time however he saw the caretaker in his room.

"Finally, we can get rid of you from the orphanage," said the caretaker in a tone that even Naruto could tell held nothing but disdain.

After that she picked Naruto up and threw him out of the orphanage with what few possessions he owned and shut the door in his face.

Naruto was sad and confused. He didn't know what he did to deserve this, He went trudging up to the hokage tower to ask the Sandaime if he could help him.

The hokage tower was several stories tall, and it was easily one of the tallest buildings in the village. It was at the hokage tower that the hokage, the leader of the village, his secretary, and his guards worked. This was where ninja's come to get their missions and it was also the place where the hokage had important meetings and did their paperwork.

He was able to pass through easily enough as at this time of night there are no need for guards. After knocking on the Sandaime's bedchamber doors he heard the third hokage get up and the muffled words of "slave driving secretaries" and "paperwork from hell" through the door. The third hokage was surprised to see him as soon as he opened the door.

" What are you doing here at this time of night, Naruto?" he asked looking at the young boy.

" The orphanage kicked me out, so I was wondering if you could help me find somewhere for me to live." Naruto replied.

The Sandaime sighed knowing this day was coming soon. However he had long ago considered where he could put Naruto. He went back inside and got some keys.

He said," Naruto, here are the keys to apartment C-2.You can live there. You would just have to pay a rent which I will give a monthly salary for which will also be for your groceries and clothing."

Naruto squealed," Thank you, Thank you, Thank you! ."

Naruto then headed to his new home. He saw it was in the middle class district and he quickly went looking for apartment C-2. When he found it he saw it was an average sized apartment near the market streets. He unlocked the door using the keys and entered. He saw that there was an average sized living room. It had white walls. The kitchen was small, but that was expected, as it was a single person apartment. There was a bedroom for him with a decent bed unlike the one at the orphanage, this one was in decent shape. He checked the cupboard and saw a lot of ramen. Naruto got really happy at seeing the ramen; He loved ramen more than anything else except his loved ones and dreams. There was even a decent bathroom. Overall it was meant for a student studying, but Naruto loved it because it was his. Naruto put his stuff away for now and decided to arrange it tomorrow.

He entered his bed and quickly fell asleep." The last thought going through his head was "maybe things are getting better"

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2 Years Later

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"Things are not getting better!"

Naruto was running as fast as his six-year-old body could. Once again he was being chased by the villagers on his birthday. It was also the 6th anniversary for the Kyuubi no Kitsune's death and the Yondaime's sacrifice. The Kyuubi no Kitsune was a demon that had attacked Konoha six years ago, it was unstoppable and many shinobi had died in attempting to stop it. Then the Yondaime, the Fourth Hokage, had used an intricate and forbidden technique to kill the Kyuubi. This technique however killed the Yondaime as a result.

He did not know why the villagers always attack him on this date. Hell he didn't know why he was attacked at all! He is always friendly to them yet they still hated him.

He was sick of it and On top of that he hated having to wear this stupid orange jumpsuit. It looked stupid with its white collar and orange color. He only wore it because he was too poor for anything else and it got him attention, which was what he wanted. That's why he had developed his mask. To gain attention and to keep himself from breaking down he acted loud, obnoxious, and stupid. In class he always acted confused and dumb and outside in the village he'd always be loud and yell out about his dream to become hokage.

He was snapped out of his thoughts as he heard the villagers yell out," You demon, you killed our families!" "We will avenge our fallen comrades!". He was always confused by what they meant when they said he was a demon or he killed their families. He would always think, 'but I never did that and I never killed anyone'. He was starting to get very afraid and angry because they were gaining on him with those various weapons and he was angry that they were yelling at him and blaming him for no good reason.

He was sick of it all, He just wanted to be left alone now. He hid in an alley up ahead and then when the villagers passed by he ran into the forest.

This forest was Naruto's favorite place to be. With its huge trees, placid meadows, large lakes with running rivers, and quiet remote areas, Naruto got to think about a lot of things usually and he could calm down. He didn't know why but the forest soothed him. The forest was so nice and peaceful and it never judged him or hurt him.

Right now though he was so angry he felt like breaking something. Naruto began to hit a tree trying to vent his growing frustrations. As he did this he started yelling "WHY! Why do the villagers always hate me? I never did a single thing to them!"

He never offended them yet they always hated him; they glared at him in the streets. Most didn't let him into their shops to get food or clothing and if they did the charged outrageous prices for some piece of garbage that a starving animal wouldn't touch.

He was so angry he didn't even realize when a flame flickered into existence on his hand. He kept on punching the tree in hopes of venting some of his anger and calm down. After a while he smelled the smoke though and looked at the dent he had made and saw the fire. He panicked because the villagers would blame him for the fire if it wasn't put out. He was so frantic and he kept thinking about water and where he could find some that he didn't even see the water appear and douse the flames until he looked at the smoldering ash filled hole now visible on the tree.

Now unlike popular belief Naruto was smart and quick witted. He simply had stopped showing it when the teachers at the academy gave him really hard questions and never taught him anything. So he decided that if being smart didn't get their attention then becoming stupid might.

He put together a theory. He believed that he had somehow caused the fire and water in his distress. He thought he'd better test it. He cupped his hands together while focusing. He tried to concentrate and use chakra like they were taught in the academy. It wasn't working. Naruto grew frustrated. He thought back to what he was feeling when he made the fire appear. He was really angry, and he tried to bring forth that anger. He tried to remember all the times he was picked on in the academy, all the times the adults would beat and treat him unfairly.

Suddenly, a flame flickered into existence between Naruto's hands. Naruto grew excited, but the lapse in concentration cost him and the flame dissipated. Naruto cursed himself and tried again and soon he had a flame in his hands. After letting the flame die out Naruto then tried to calm himself as he was concentrating on water when a drop of water appeared in his hands. He focused intently and then the small bubble of water began to expand until it would fill a small cup. Naruto's concentration did not fade and he moved his hands around. The water bubble moved in conjunction with his hands and Naruto took great delight in making the water move this way and that as if it were the greatest thing in the world.

'It seems that my emotions affect my control over this unique power of mine. I need to be angry to call out fire and I need to be focused and calm to be able to use water. I also need to use my hands to move and control these elements while focusing chakra and thinking about an element. I can just think of the possibilities there are if I can master this'

Then Naruto had a thought 'what if this is a bloodline?'. Naruto's mind went into hyper drive at the implications of this bloodline.

'If I honed my power then I could have a signature technique which nobody else could use, if I did then I might be able to achieve my dream.' Thought Naruto.

The dream he tells everybody to become the Hokage was only part of his dream. The rest of his dream is to be acknowledged by the other villages and become a legend. He wanted to become the best ninja ever as well. He long ago wanted to be recognized as something other than a demon by this village. He didn't understand why he was called a demon either but he resolved himself to find out. He also thought about his farce.

He was sick and tired of people making fun of him because of his grades and his act " I know my act gets people to notice me, but not the respect I want. "Naruto sat down on the meadow crossed his legs and arms and closed his eyes. Getting into his classic thinking position and began to think more on this.

"The people of the village respect the hokage because he's strong and the best and protects them. So if I want to get what the old man does then I need to quiet my act and get stronger." Then a depressing thought came to his mind " The problem is that no one at the academy or anywhere else in the village for that matter will help me."

It was then that he had a thought "what if I left the village to train I mean I'm not a ninja yet so they don't have a reason to look for me". The more he thought about it the more the idea seemed appealing, leave the village for six years and graduate with his age group when he came back , He could learn techniques outside the village and work on his bloodline in secret, he could even come up with his own jutsu!

He soon had a plan for the next day, after another day of faking his life at the academy he would break into and take what ever he found useful from the storage shed where the teachers kept what they taught with, Then he would sneak into the library and see what they had, then head to the hokage tower and leave a note for the old man to read and maybe fleece the place for anything good, finally he would get out of the village and leave for six years.

He suddenly felt very tired. He guessed it was from using his bloodline. He needed a name for it as well. He'd think about the details on his way home.

By the time he reached home it was nighttime and he barely had enough energy to lock the door before he fell from exhaustion.

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The next day he woke up and went to his closet He saw the same dumb old orange clothing. He needed to change that in the future as soon as he left the village. He'd need some real clothes since he would stand out to much if he wanted to be a ninja ' this thing screams kill me colors' Naruto thought pulling the zipper up. He ate some ramen and also decided that as much as he loved it he'd need to change that as well or he'd never be strong because he'd be malnourished and he didn't want to be a weak, short kid forever.

He then headed to the academy, but entered late to keep up his reputation as a goofball for one last time. His teacher Iruka looked at him and walked up to him, bonked him on the head and dragged him to the front of the classroom.

"Iruka-sensei let go of me," said Naruto in a whiny voice.' So far so good' he thought.

"No, Naruto. Since you've done us the favor of being late, everybody will review the topic on charka again!"

The class groaned and looked at Naruto with hateful, angry looks. Chakra topics were long, boring, and confusing. It really didn't help that Iruka had gone over this particular lesson a dozen times before.

" But I don't want to, chakra is boring." Naruto complained in his best whiny voice.

Iruka eye twitched for the twelfth time that morning and yelled," I don't care Naruto and now everybody will write a whole page on chakra after the review for homework!"

Now the class outright yelled obscenities at Naruto except for Chouji, Shikamaru, Hinata, and Shino, who all just sat there quietly, blushed, slept, or ate chips.

Iruka yelled," Quiet all of you. Now listen up. Chakra is the combination of physical energy and spiritual energy that is brought out by using hand signs. Chakra can be used to make seals, use jutsu, strengthen or speed up one's body, use bloodlines, use doujutsu, and in some legends create weapons.

Chakra can be used in ninjutsu, the elemental attacks such as thunder, earth, water, wind, and fire. It can also be used in genjutsu which controls the person's senses allowing items to be hidden, damage to be caused, illusions to be put up, and in some very rare cases cause a person to become mindless. Chakra is also used in taijutsu which is hand-to-hand combat by increasing one's speed or strength in battle. Some prominent clans such as the Hyuuga and the Uchiha clans use doujutsu such as the byakugan and the sharingan in sync with their taijutsu to help them in battle.

Now whenever you use some chakra you must have an equal amount of physical and spiritual energy or else you will mess up the jutsu. To fix this you can use chakra control exercises. Some are tree climbing, water walking, and floating yourself or objects using chakra. Now most kunoichi have good chakra control as they have small chakra reserves. To increase your chakra reserve you must do work, training, and sparring to increase your chakra. Now did you all catch that?"

He saw Naruto sleeping. With his eye twitching yet again Iruka hit him in the head and yelled at him about sleeping in class.

Naruto however was thinking over what Iruka had said 'that was a lot of useful information even if I've heard it before. I now know I have to increase my chakra reserves because if I got so tired from setting a tree on fire and a little bit of water then I'll never be able to reach my maximum potential.'

Soon Iruka called lunch and Naruto set about his first objective. Instead of heading to his usual lunch spot he ran to behind the school to where a large silver shed was. It was where the teachers stored all the equipment they used in their lessons from books to kunai. Naruto knew they locked they doors when not in use but in less than a minute he had it picked and was inside.

What Naruto found was better than he could have hoped. There were boxes upon boxes of kunai, shuriken, and sebon. Huge bookcases held books for the school Naruto had never even seen. There were explosive tags and training weights piled neatly on shelves and barrels of small bombs in the corners there were various weapons on the walls from several fuuma shuriken to a katana that the chunin used for demonstrations. There were small round containers filled only with ninja wire and even cases for food, blood, and soldier pills. In an open box naruto could clearly see blank scrolls that could be used in a number of ways.

'Wow the school is well paid' with that thought Naruto came out of his daze and began grabbing as much as he could and putting it in a large three piece backpack he brought. Naruto took as many books he could fit into it first next he took three sets of training weights and put some of the blank scrolls in his back pocket. He then started to take as many weapons would fit in the remaining space all in all he had ten new sets of kunai as well as two sets of shuriken and one foldable fuuma shuriken. He stuffed one the pockets of the backpack with pills and another with bombs and ninja wire. He was about to leave when he turned around to look at the katana on the wall.

"Well I came this far," mused Naruto as he took the sword off its place and slung it over the top of the backpack.

He left the shed none the wiser and quickly stashed his looted prizes in a tree he often hanged in. Naruto quickly returned to his classroom to await his next objective.

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As soon as class was out Naruto ran all the way to the library. Due to the villagers ignoring his existence he had been able to learn many of the villagers schedules and he used this to his advantage. He knew the librarian who ran the place would be closing soon and that she always let the door shut itself while she was there. Just as naruto reached his destination he saw the librarian walking out of the building.

Quickly as not to lose the opportunity naruto picked up a rock and hurled it at the door just as it was closing. The librarian never heard the rock lodge itself between the door and lock and walked away unaware of the ajar door behind her.

After she got far enough away naruto quickly slipped into the building and shut the door. Not wanting to waist time naruto pulled a duffle bag from under his shirt and started to browse the shelves of anything that would teach him useful or powerful jutsu or how to survive in the wild and be a shinobi.

He took various books on plants and animals knowing that he could use some if he got sick or hurt while training. He grabbed several shinobi handbooks and managed to find and advanced charka exercise book which listed many different exercises he could try.

Naruto also grabbed a few books on necessary information from math and science to human anatomy and shinobi law. Naruto was determined to become as strong as possible and he knew that these books would help him with basic necessary duties anyone was expected to be able to do.

Naruto felt he had enough after he grabbed a good sized map of the various shinobi countries and quickly ducked out of the library before one of the next librarian on shift walked through the door. He ran back to the academy and quickly stashed the duffle bag with the backpack and started to leave the school when he literally ran head first into his teacher Iruka

"Naruto? What are you doing here?" Iruka asked pulling naruto up from the ground.

'Oh man Iruka-sensei must practically live here! I mean schools been out a while but what can I say that will get him off of my back? Wait I know!' Naruto quickly put on a false face and looked at Iruka " Ne, Iruka-sensei can you buy me ramen today?

'Of course that's what he wanted Iruka sweat dropped but never the less agreed.

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"Well that took care of Iruka-sensei and now all I need to do is get the note to the hokage, get my stuff and get out of here." Naruto said to himself as he ran back to his apartment in order to get what he needed from there.

Naruto burst into his apartment and grabbed a few things he needed. Since many of the stores overcharged him and even more didn't even let him in he had never used the money the hokage had given him much and he had saved quiet a bit of money that, with a little sparse spending, could last him quiet a while.

He then raided the kitchen of any food that he could find that wouldn't spoil any time soon. Even though he took mostly ramen cups he did find some caned food and other nonperishable items for the road.

"This should last me at least a few months but eventually I'll need to take a job somewhere to keep up with my travels. But then again there's always someone out there who needs a person with at least the basic ninja skills" naruto said to himself stuffing the last few bills into his frog shaped wallet. Naruto was just about to leave when he saw a picture had on the window. It was one of him and the Hokage, Iruka, Ayame, and her father at the Ichiriku on his last birthday.

The picture brought a sad smile to Narutos face as he took it from its place and carefully folded it until it fit in his pocket. " Not many will miss me but this will remind me of those who do."

Naruto looked at the time and saw how late it was. He quickly wrote a note and left it on the small table in the kitchen and as he stepped out the door took a moment to take one last look at his home before shutting the door quietly.

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Naruto ran on the roofs of the village to the hokage tower. He had just picked up the sack and backpack he had stashed earlier and was making a b line straight to his last objective before leaving the village.

As Naruto neared the tower he brought all his past visits to mind. The tower of the village was well guarded at night this was true, but there was one major flaw in the building. Right on the ground floor there was a small window that was broken and the only effort to fix it had been a loose board that was put there to cover the hole. The window was too small for an adult to fit though but narutos size let him slip through easily and he used this to his advantage. Naruto took what he brought with him and put it under a bush before moving the board just enough to slip in.

Naruto found himself in the basement, which he had come to know well due to his trips in the hokage tower. He quietly opened the door to see if any guards were about. Finding none he headed strait to the hokage library.

Thanks to the hokage and chatter he had overheard from other ninja naruto knew that was where the most powerful jutsu were kept for high-ranking ninja to study and something they often referred to as the forbidden scroll that supposedly held very powerful jutsu that only a few could master.

"Something like that should be better hidden," naruto mused to himself as he turned the corner that led to the room full of ninja secrets.

Just as Naruto was about to reach the door however he heard someone coming down the next hall. Acting quickly he opened the door and shut it just as none other than the third hokage walked quickly down the hall.

"I'm free! I'm finally free of that blasted work and evil secretary!" naruto heard the aged hokge say as he passed the door and the footsteps faded down the hall. 'It can't be that bad can it?' naruto thought as he turned around and started to search trough the seemingly endless piles of books and scrolls.

'Lets see crap, crap, boring, seen it,' Naruto thought as the pile of discarded paper started to grow higher and higher.

Naruto found few things that perked his interest in the section that held genjutsu but found many things he was interested in throughout the ninjustu , taijutsu, and kenjutsu areas of the library

Naruto knew his strengths and weaknesses and found he was terrible at genjutsu because of his habit of putting to much chakra into a jutsu and the constant demand of concentration he had a hard time maintaining anything harder than a hendge. But he also with enough work he could easily make up for this

" I suck at genjutsu but in order to reach my dream I will over come this." Naruto said with utmost confidence and belief. Naruto took a few easy chunin level genjutsu scrolls but for taijutsu and ninjutsu he took much harder scrolls that reached upper jonnin and anbu level in some cases.

The kenjutsu scrolls naruto found to be very interesting, many of them contained well made drawings of stances and the way to use the sword for it's techniques. "These are going to be a big help while I travel, I would probably be one of those people who just swing a sword wildly and hope to hit something if I didn't find these." Naruto muttered at the thought.

The last thing naruto checked out was the forbidden scroll and he soon found why it was called that. With a serious face naruto examined the writing. "A lot of these don't just take a lot of chakra they would kill me too! Now I see why the old man said this was off limits to everyone but him. I don't want to die doing some technique so that means I'm limited in how many I can do from this stupid scroll." All in all naruto copied down only a few jutsu that he felt would help him without the messy affair of death.

Then as quick as he came naruto returned any items he had taken out and carefully placed them as he had found them. The only sound that entered the hall as naruto left was the door to the basement closing behind him

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Naruto ran as fast as his body would allow him, which considering how much stuff he was carrying, was a decent sprint straight to the walls of Konoha. It was late at night and naruto knew this was the perfect time to get out of the village since the guards on duty were most likely asleep at their post.

"Man, the old man really needs to rethink the village defense plans. First thing I do when I'm hokage is order anyone on night watch to have coffee every hour." Naruto muttered to himself as he quietly slipped by the chunin on duty who was clearly off somewhere in dreamland.

As soon as naruto was out of the sight of the village he pulled out the map of the shinobi countries to decide which way to head. Naruto found several places he did not want to go quickly mainly the rock and lightning countries since any conversation he had heard from other ninja told him they hated leaf ninja any anyone from the land of fire in general. He very much doubted that him being a child would change the mind of a ninja who swore allegiance to either of the two strange lands. Naruto however had found a few places that he thought would be a little more accommodating to his present needs, one place was the land of waves and another the land of wind.

"Both of these two countries are either friendly of neutral to home so these two will do for now" naruto said to himself picking the land of waves seeing as it was closer than wind at his present location.

Naruto pick up his speed and ran most of the night and into midday the next day taking only short breaks to gain as much distance as possible from his home village all the while being careful not to leave too many clues incase the old man did send someone after him. After nearly two full days of nonstop running naruto slowed his pace to a brisk walk and continued until mid noon when he felt sure he was close to the border of mist.

Looking around naruto found a tree with branches large enough that he could sleep on them without ear of falling out of it. "this will do nicely" naruto said to himself as he laid a sleeping bag he brought with him out on the branch being careful to make sure it was well hidden from prying eyes below.

"what should I do now" naruto muttered to himself before remembering why he left Kanoha "right I need to work on my bloodline!" naruto exclaimed before walking away from his camp.

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Naruto walked to a place a couple of kilometers into the forest away from his temporary house He needed to test the new Uzumaki bloodline techniques secrets after all.

After reaching a sufficient distance Naruto surveyed his surroundings. It was a meadow with a stream nearby. It also had a place where he could make a campfire. He was surrounded by earth and air as well. It was the perfect place to test out his bloodline.

He decided to try and make a fireball. He focused his chakra. He then used a tiger hand sign and focused on blowing out fire. He slowly breathed out but it didn't work. he decided to try to get himself angry. He kept on remembering past occurrences where he was beaten up, thrown into dumpsters, his stuff was stolen, someone broke his stuff, he was picked on etc. As he remembered everything he slowly got angrier and angrier. He then blew out a small stream of fire from his mouth . He tried again putting more chakra into it this time. He slowly blew out a small stream of fire that dissipated one foot away from him.

Naruto sat down on the medow assuming his thinking position and thought about the way he was doing this.

'It would seem that although I need anger, I also need lots of chakra and to control my charka carefully so I can control it. I wonder if I can control my chakra using my hands.'

Naruto tried to blow out a stream of fire and this time he cupped the fire into a ball. He made motions with his hands to move the fireball. The fireball moved with his hands. He then grabbed the fireball and proceeded to touch it. It didn't burn him.

'I am guessing that since this is my chakra it cant hurt me. If I were to throw this at something else though.'

He launched the ball of fire at the grass. It hit the grass and the ball burst and started to burn the grass. Naruto then decided to try water again.

He focused on his chakra and made a dog hand sign and tried to move the water from the stream onto the burned grass. He made motions with his arms and then pretended to sweep up water and throw it onto the fire. Throughout it all he was focused completely on his task. Slowly but surly the water began to rise and moved toward the fire. Rotating his hands above the fire he formed a decent size ball of water and dropped it, quickly dousing the fire. Naruto's face had sweat beads from the task but his face was taken up by a huge smile.

Naruto did the snake hand sign and focused a quarter of his chakra into the ground. He then proceeded to make uppercuts with his arms. He focused on the ground in front of him. He was however failing miserably. But if anger and calmness didn't work then what works with earth? He decided to think of earth and just be focused and set on the task. He kept on making the uppercuts until he slowly saw the earth in front of him rise and jut out of the ground at an angle away from him till he couldn't see above it. He let go of the earth and watched as it crumbled into small size clumps of rock and dirt. He fell to the ground panting from how hard it was. He then sat and rested for a few moments.

"This is harder than I thought it would be" Naruto said between breaths but this just filled him with renewed vigor. One of the top things on Narutos favorite list was a challenge and no matter what it was he always beat them.

After that he got up and tried to think of lightning. He focused on his finger and made a rooster hand sign. After that he focused on trying to get a spark on his finger. He tried to think of chaotic thoughts, as lightning was chaotic. He focused on using a tiny spark on his finger. Slowly he could hear a small crackle of electricity. He had the tiny spark. It was hard to control however, very hard, and he could barely make a tiny spark. It was so hard to control the lightning in fact naruto had to move his head from a stray line of energy than shot at him just barly missing his face. He would have to learn to control it the hard way as when he let go it didn't just dissipate; it ran through his body shocking him a little and making his already wild hair stand on end. Naruto thought about how that could be useful if he used this element in his taijutsu later on.

He thought of doing one more thing before he started to train and increase his chakra reserves. He focused on the wind around him and closed his eyes. This time he did the rabbit hand sign. He focused on spreading his chakra out into the air that had just pick up moving the trees gently. He then focused on making some wind currents around him. He tried to push the air around him towards him. He needed precisety and lots of chakra for air as he had to spread out his chakra and with so much air he had to have in mind what he wanted to do. He focused and concentrated really hard. Slowly he felt a small movement in the air. It was a very small movement but movment none the less . Naruto tried to move all the air at once, relocating some wind to move around him into the place where he was moving the wind from. The place where the air was going would move that air to fill any gaps. This way it wouldn't need to be pushed as much. It was easier and he could feel a slight breeze begin to pick up. He thought he might be able to make a whirlwind or even stronger storm if he had better control and more chakra.

He decided to increase his chakra reserves. He started out by doing some pushups, did twenty of them then did some curl ups. After twenty of those he did a lap around the meadow, which was a quarter of a mile in circumference. After that he decided to just jump around and do stamina training by doing jumps and flips. He did this all without using chakra to strengthen himself. He would work on that during taijutsu training when he was over. After that he did some jumping jacks. Finally he did fifty punches and fifty kicks at a tree per arm and leg. By then it was nightfall and naruto was exhausted. Quickly eating a sparse meal and planning his path and schedule for tomorrow Naruto fell blissfully asleep after he reached his temporary bed in the tree.

A/N: Wow that was a lot of writing anyway the pairing for this story will be a naru/hina and hopefully be decently long also naruto elements will be fire, wind, water, thunder, earth, ice, nature, darkness, and light. I am thinking of putting a few cross over elements from other anime's but will only do them if I can make it believable. If you have any questions or feed back plz review and I will try to get back to as many as I can.


	2. Naruto gone! what now?

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto if I did naruto wouldn't be as dumb, there would be a lot more blood, we would know who narutos family was, and he and hinata would be together from day one.

Ok folks second chapter is officially here!

Thx to all who reviewed my story but out of all people who saw my story, which was about 650 something, very few of you reviewed

I'm not asking for letters but a nice job or keep going will really help me want to work on my first fic. Also to anyone who has advice plz do so as well since I want to make this the best fic I can.

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In the ninja academy sat one very irritated teacher by the name of iruka. He is a great man who despite being a strict person when it came to teaching was also fair and very kind to everyone he meets and knows. He loves the children he teachs and his position in the school since he always wanted to help them become excellent shinobi.

And now, you may ask yourself why would such a caring compassionate man be the least bit irritated? Well….

"WHERE THE HELL IS NARUTO UZUMAKI!!!"

"I'm sorry iruka-sensei no one has seen him since the last day he was here" said one cowering student, as there was nothing worse than an angry iruka.

"Five whole days missing from the academy and not a single explanation I should have guessed he'd play hooky to get out of that assignment" iruka sighed to himself knowing naruto was probably running loose in the village somewhere when he should be here at the school trying to get ready for the next graduation test. He knew naruto wouldn't show up until he was dragged into the class room so he made his decision.

"Class I got to go get your wayward class mate so just wait a minute and a sub will be in to start your lessons" iruka said causing everyone to moan after he shut the door

Every student seemed to want to voice his or her opinions about the latest naruto had done to them and the school

"Where the hell could naruto be? I don't care about him but if I have to listen to this boring lecture then so should he!" exclaimed one very agitated kiba inuzuka

" I don't know where he is but it would be too troublesome to get involved, just let the teachers handle it" replied Nara Shikumaru as he laid his head down to catch a few winks before the teacher got in. His best friend Choji Akimichi just continued to munch on his seemingly endless supply of chips.

One Shino Aburame, well, he kind of just sat in his corner and adjusted his glasses.

" Humph maybe the loser finally figured out he'll never become a shinobi" said one Sasuke Uchiha as he began him classic brooding method

"Your right sasuke-kun he probably quit after he saw how cool you are!" said one very loud and very annoying fan girl named Sakura Haruno "** Cha! Now nothing stand between me and my Sasuke-kun!!!**" inner Sakura yelled

"Hey fore-head girl! Stop sucking up to Sasuke-kun!" yelled an equally loud fan girl named Ino Yamanaka.

"What you say ino- pig?!!!" screeched Sakura

" You heard me billboard brow!" yelled ino just before Sakura tackled her to the ground starting yet another fan girl induced catfight.

As the other student egged on and shouted in the fight sitting alone from everyone else was a shy girl by the name of Hinata Hyuga. She would often sit away from the other students due to her shy nature and her inability to express herself well. Her studies in school were average and because of her clans title of greatness she was often ridiculed by other students.

She did however find one thing she liked in the school, one blonde trouble making prank-playing student named Uzumaki Naruto. He was the complete opposite of her clan and many people she knew. He was loud, energetic, and rude, did not obey others often, and was in her eyes the most brazen, selfless, brave person in the school.

Even when others made fun of him all he did was smirk and shout out his dreams. She wished she could be more like him, so confident and care free that she soon developed a crush on him and his charms.

Ignoring the fight she instead looked out the window by her seat showing a grand view of the village and whispering "Naruto-kun where are you?"

"Where the hell could Naruto be?" Iruka asked himself as he ran along the rooftops of the village searching for any sign of his student.

So far he had checked all his usual hiding spots from the hokage monument to the park.

He had even gone to Ichiriku in search of him hoping to see him guzzling down his twenty -seventh bowel of ramen but when he got there Ayame told him neither of them had seen him since their last dinner together.

Now he was really worried about Naruto, as far as he knew all he did was live on ramen and if they hadn't seen him then something bad may have happened to his missing student.

" What if the villagers… No! Don't think that if anything happened to him the hokage would tell me! Wait I know! I bet he's at his house!!!" Iruka thought changing his path and reaching the apartment in minutes.

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As Iruka opened the door to the apartment the first thing he noticed was that the apartment itself was intact so the villagers hadn't broken in and attacked naruto the last few days.

The second thing he noticed was a lot of narutos stuff was gone including a picture he had given naruto on one of his birthdays which he knew naruto would never throw away or give to anybody.

The third and final thing he found was his bed was made and obviously had not been used recently at all.

"What the… what happened here?" iruka asked himself as he swiped a finger along a table top with signs of a thin dust covering showing on his hands.

It was then he notice two neatly folded up pieces of paper one of which had his name on it

Picking it up and opening it he read the letter obviously meant for him.

Hey Iruka-Sensei!!! 

_I knew you'd be the first one to come looking for me after a while!_

_Sorry for missing your classes but I needed some time to myself to get stronger on my own _

_After all, how can I become the greatest hokage in history if nobody wants to help me get stronger than I am? Don't worry about me sensei after all you know I'll be back to pass my grade level in the gennin test!_

_Sorry about making you, Ayame & her dad, and the old man hokage worry about me but leaving the village seems the only choice I have that will let me reach my goals. _

_I took all my important stuff so don't worry about the apartment but just come every now and then and clean it for me will you? Thanks a lot sensei!!!_

_Before I forget, take that other note to old man hokage for me ok?_

_Thanks again!_

_Uzumaki Naruto_

_Future hokage of Konohakure_

Iruka stood still eyes wide-open mouth slightly hanging loose in shock. He had to reread the note again before he believed it was real. He quickly grabbed the other note before jumping out of the window making a b-line straight towards the thirds office. '

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"Lord hokage! We have a problem! " Yelled on very out of breath iruka as he ran into the office of the single most powerful man in the entire village of the leaf.

Said hokage looked up at him from the mountain of paper work that threatened to fall off the desk with a slight scowl showing now was not the time to talk.

"Iruka, unless this is a life or death situation that could spell the doom of the village I am not in the mood to talk right now. Someone has taken a large number of books from the library and the ninja academy needs a lot of new supplies which it shouldn't since I just gave them it last week. All of this has given me more paperwork than usual.So unless it is an emergency please leave me to at least try to finish some of this work," the hokage said as he reached for a new piece of paper.

"But lord hokage Narutos been missing from the academy for the last five days and when I went looking for him at his apartment I found a note saying he was leaving!!

Hokage-sama he has run away from the village!!!" iruka yelled causing said man to stop what he was doing immediately.

"WHAT?" yelled the hokage as he stood up from his chair knocking all the paper off his desk as he did. "iruka why didn't you go look for him sooner?" yelled the hokage

"Well its not uncommon for naruto to skip three or four days of school before we see him again, and I knew if anything bad was going to happen he'd run to you first " explained iruka as he tried to defend himself as best he could

"Well where is he now?" the hokage asked in barely held anger

Near the leaf/mist border

"ACHOOOO!"

Due to narutos sudden sneeze the rabbit he had been hunting suddenly jumped away from the trap

Running in the opposite direction.

As naruto stood up from the bush he had been hiding in his face went from shock and surprise to anger and frustration, which he shouted for the entire world to hear in one word

"KUSO!!!!"

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" I don't know where he is sir but he did leave you this letter" iruka said as he brought the letter out of his pocket only for the hokage to snatch it out of his hand and yell " YOU ONLY TELL ME THIS NOW?!!" as the hokage shredded the envelope and began to read his message.

_Hey old man!!!_

_Guess my letter got to you and you want an explanation why I ran from the village. Well its actually quiet simple really, so I can get stronger. I mean how am I going to become a strong ninja if nobody wants me too and everyone just hinders my learning and growth. All the teachers there except iruka-sensei seem to want to hold me back. Not to mention that the villagers seem to want me dead for some reason. I don't know why they do it and probably never will but I want to make something's clear to you_

_First, I'm going to come back in about six years to graduate with my age group so don't worry about me coming back_

_Second, Don't send anyone after me you know how well I can get away from people in the village and I can only do it better outside the village!_

_Third, I'm not a ninja yet so I don't think it would look good to send a ninja after a civilian, a kid no less_

_Fourth, I kind of barrowed a lot of stuff from the library and academy so I hope nobody minds that_

_Fifth, you really need to work on guarding that scroll in your library I mean I got to it and got quiet a few jutsu written down before I left so you might want to find a new hiding place for it _

_P.S. don't worry! I only took the ones that need a lot of chakra not the ones that kill the person who uses the jutsu. I mean how dumb is that?_

_Well that's all I can think of so just so you know anyway take care old man and tell iruka -sensei and the ichiriku crew that ill be back before you know it!_

_Don't you dare give that hat to anyone while I'm gone old man or else ill test my new bloodline on you when I get back!_

_Yours truly,_

_Naruto Uzumaki _

_Future hokage of Kanohakgure_

As the hokage read this he went through a myriad of emotions from concern and sadness 'naruto has the village really been so bad?' to shock and anger 'naruto, how could you be so reckless?' In the end though he ended up just sitting down in his seat and giving a long drawn out sigh.

"So what do we do lord hokage?" asked Iruka after giving the hokage a moment to gather his thoughts.

Sarutobi just chuckled an asked " well what can we do Iruka? After all he is a child and like he said if we send someone after him and another village finds out they'll start asking questions as to why and we really don't need to draw attention to naruto" to which iruka nodded his head seeing as it was a valid point.

"Also if we were to bring him back I doubt he would stay here long enough to explain himself, since when he puts his mind to something it's like talking to a mountain to convince him otherwise" again iruka nodded his head knowing how hard headed naruto could be when he put his mind to something

"If only he were like that about his ninja studies" iruka said causing both men to chuckle a bit at the thought. This ended when the hokage looked back at the letter in his hand as he reread a few lines

"In any case I believe that this trip will actually help Naruto to succeed in becoming a leaf ninja. We know that he is coming back if his letter is any indication and he is still hell bent on getting my job." Finished the hokage as he picked up a few papers from the floor.

"Well what should I tell the rest of my class?" iruka asked helping the hokage and placing a stack of papers on the desk" they'll want a reason why he wont be in class any more you know"

"Tell then what naruto said, that he's gone on a training trip and will be back in time for graduation," replied the hokage with a small smirk on his face.

"But Lord hokage what about the council, when they hear about this I don't think they'll be as easy to deal with like my students."

All the hokage did was wave his hand and reply " I will deal with them when the time comes, in the mean time I have to get this paper work done and you have to get back and do your job as a teacher to your remaining students."

Iruka smiled and bowed before he disappeared in a cloud of smoke leaving the age hokage alone once again.

The hokage smiled as he read the note once over and said to himself "Naruto I hope you are safe wherever you go and get strong like you want to be but remember what I have taught you about being a good person as well.

Those who have the power to change life must do so for the better other wise they will end up an empty shell of what they once were." The smile ran away from his face until a grim frown replaced it as he remembered the one person he knew who symbolized this all too well.

'The one question I have is what Naruto meant when he had a bloodline. I know for a fact he doesn't have anything close to a 'bloodline' so what could he have meant? Well I guess that is a mystery for another time now I have to try to get some of this work done'

However as the hokage began to look at the papers in his hand and naruto's note in the other he came to one very unpleasant conclusion which everyone in the tower heard as his voice rang out 

"**NARUTO!!!!! YOU'RE THE REASONE I HAVE ALL THIS WORK!!!!!"**

This of course made everyone in said tower stop and wonder why the hokage was yelling about the demon this time

'Naruto when you get back you better be the most powerful person in history because if you aren't nothing will spare you from my wrath' thought the hokage as he crushed the note in his hand

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On a boat headed to mist

"ACHOOO!!"

"Hey kid, are you getting sick? Cause if you are then your going to have to get off this here boat!" said one very large man who was obviously in charge of said boat

"No no, it's ok! I'm just not used to the ocean and my nose is a little sensitive right now is all!" replied naruto as he walked away from the side of the boat and back to his small quarters for the ride into mist

"Someone must be talking about me" naruto said to himself as he crawled into bed and smiled as he pulled out a book on controlling chakra "well bring them on! They'll just end up like everyone else!" as he began his training

"Now lets see, the leaf chakra exercise starts with……"

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A/N: ok so that's chapter two! Now I need to explain something

I had a hard time coming up with the parts between the hokage and iruka so that delayed this chapter big time then I have work and now I got collage so that took a major chunck of my free time anyway I hope to have chapter three out sooner than this one took but don't worry I get it up eventually!

Now a poll for all you loyal fans out there!

Should I have crossover with other anime? Y/N

Should Naruto meet zabuza and haku while in mist? Y/N

Voice your opinion and plz review!!!!!


	3. A thief, a family, a gift

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto if I did naruto wouldn't be as dumb, there would be a lot more blood, we would know who Naruto's family was, and he and hinata would be together from day one.

I am so, so sorry!!!! (Bows deeply on ground) I just started some prerequisites for my college and they eat up all my time plus my girlfriends been feeling really needy and I have had to cover six shifts at work cuz everyone is quitting on us!

Anyway third chapter and I tallied up the votes a lot of people asked for crossover and clarification on it (sorry will try to be more specific in the future!) But a lot of other people asked me not to so I decided on a compromise

I'll take parts from other anime and integrate it into my story but no direct crossovers. For instance I might take the reigun from yuyu hakusho but none of the characters will appear in my story. Also I have also decided from your votes that Naruto will meet Haku and Zabuza. Probably within the next one to three chapters.

So on with the fiction!!!!

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"GOD DAMN THAT OLD MAN!!!"

These are the words Naruto yelled as disembarked from the boat onto dry land after his short trip to wave "thanks to that old bastard I barely got any training done at al!!!!"

The 'old man' as Naruto put it was none other than the ships captain who throughout the trip had constantly told him off for doing ninja training on the boat while it was in route to mist. Considering Naruto's eagerness to get stronger and improve himself, he had shown remarkable restraint in what he had been training in. He had merely trying the wall walking exercise as it was a recommended way of improving chakra control and increasing ones chakra reserves which Naruto found the leaf control exercise, though interesting, was sorely lacking in any real use due to his already massive reserves barely being used up by such a simple exercise.

Unfortunately, many people on the ship, captain included, found a boy walking on the side of the moving boat and up walls and ceilings to be annoying and a little freaky no matter the reason. So it ended up that the captain had given Naruto had a choice, either wait to get off the boat at the end of the trip to train or learn to water walk really fast.

In the end, Naruto was forced to just read his books in his quarters while they waited to make land. He did manage to go thru some of the academy books and the anatomy book he took from the library. He found many ways his bloodline could actually be used in a fight by reading that particular book as it had large sections on chakra pathways and how they worked with the body in combat.

'I should have learned some water jutsu or maybe used my bloodline and given that bastard a taste of his own medicine' Naruto thought as he began to chuckle to himself loudly causing many people to back away from said blond incase he was a few kunai short of a full set.

"Well at any rate, the first thing I should do is get someplace to stay then I need to get some food" Naruto said to himself looking into the sky seeing the sun had run far past the noon mark.

However at that moment as Naruto began to walk into town he heard a woman scream out " HELP!! THIEF!!!". As Naruto looked over his shoulder he saw a man running away from a woman carrying a purse in one hand and a small knife in the other. And as the man started to run in his direction Naruto heard him call out "move it you blond haired midget!!" causing said blond hair to stop right in the street.

"What did he just call me?" Naruto asked in a low and dangerous voice, his hair shadowing his eyes. He slowly dropped the duffle bag and backpack on the ground, as the man got closer and closer not moving an inch from his spot in the street.

Just as the man was near him he foolishly once again said " don't say I didn't warn you runt!" as the man thrusted the knife towards Naruto's back only for Naruto to turn on his heel and catch his arm.

Before anyone realized it Naruto had used the man's force against him and threw him through a store's window knocking him out as Naruto shouted, "I'm not a runt!! I'm still growing you back water idiot!!!!" .

Naruto then pulled the sword from his hip where he had tied it, sheath and all, and jumped through the broken window as his voice was heard from inside "What else you going to call me?!!! An imp?! Dwarf?! Little person?! I'll still kick your ass from here to wind country!!!" Naruto proceeded to beat the snot out of the would be criminal all the while yelling things that would make Anko and Ibiki blush like a certain pale eyed girl.

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_5 minutes later_

Naruto climbed out of the store window with the purse in one hand the sword in the other, and looked around. His clothes were ruffled and cut and he was covered in dust and everyone on the street was staring at him like he had just grown a second head. He answered them the best way he could "what the hell you all looking at?"

As the crowd dispersed and mutterings of "crazy blonds" and " kids these days" rose in the air, the women who owned the purse walked up to him. "Thank you so much for saving my purse, it has all my money I have been saving for this months groceries and if you didn't stop him I don't know what to do"."

"No problem" Naruto said smiling as he picked up his backpack off the ground and slung the duffle bag over a shoulder " It was some good exercise beating that guy, even if he really wasn't all that tough" Naruto smiled as he finished tying the sword back on his hip.

" Well thanks anyway, do you live around here? I've never seen you before" she asked as she checked her purse.

" No actually I just got here on a boat and was looking for a place to stay while I was here when I helped you" Naruto said gesturing with his thumb to the man still in the store.

" Well I can't let you spend your money at the inns here, the prices are outrageous." She said smiling " you can stay with me and my family while you're here we'll even cook you a nice meal."

"Oh no!" Naruto replied quickly" I could never…" but before Naruto could finish his sentence his stomach decided to talk for him as it growled loudly.

Having the decency to blush as the woman giggled he meekly said " well, maybe just for tonight."

"Well then lets go" she said but as they turned around a hand landed on Naruto's shoulder. It belonged to the man he had just finished beating up.

"You little punk" the thief weakly said seeing as Naruto had done a great job kicking his ass to which he now sported a black eye, a dozen bruises, three missing teeth, and a shoe print to the fore head " now your really going to…"

But just before he finished that last word the back of Naruto's fist connected with his nose sending him back onto the floor with a new injury consisting of a broken bloody nose.

"Some people just don't learn" Naruto muttered as he told the owner of the store to charge all damage to the thief before running after the woman.

The woman quickly asked, " Oh I almost forgot what's your name? I don't think you want to be called 'little punk' the whole time your with us" she said smiling

"My names Naruto Uzumaki and it's a pleasure to meet you…." Naruto trailed off to which she simply smiled and answered "Tsunami"

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"Its kinda loud huh?" Naruto asked as they stood outside a house where somewhere inside something was making the loudest racket that people could hear from several houses away.

Tsunami sighed and simply said " Inari must have woken up"

Suddenly the door busted open to reveal a very scruffy looking man who upon seeing Tsunami began to rant saying such things as "thank god you're here" and " hasn't stopped crying for an hour!"

Tsunami however just ignored him as she walked into the house and walked up the stairs where the loud crying was coming from. It was at this time that the man noticed Naruto and asked, "Who the hell are you kid?"

"I'm Naruto Uzumaki and don't call me kid!" Naruto responded indignantly " and I guess I'm a guest or something. Tsunami-san offered to let my stay here for the night because I saved her purse from some second rate purse snatcher"

The man looked Naruto over and he wasn't impressed. Naruto was dirty and his orange jumpsuit was torn and dirty from the beating he had given the man earlier _" must be poor or something"_ he thought _" there is no way in hell anyone in their right mind would wear something that god awful!"_

As Naruto shifted in place under the man's eye all the man did was snort and mutter "crazy daughter, hearts too big for her purse" he then looked at Naruto said "names Tazuna now get inside before I lock you out"

As soon as he was inside, Naruto put his stuff against the wall and looked at what would be a temporary residence. It was a neat little house with two floors and the basic essentials. All in all, Naruto found it to be a cozy little place he could come to like if he stayed long enough.

" Um, nice place you have here Tazuna-san" Naruto said as he sat down at a table where Tazuna joined him "humph, thanks brat but I gotta say the newest roommate is a real pain" he replied as he watched Tsunami walk from upstairs into the kitchen.

"Who?" Naruto asked only to turn around, jump back in surprise and fall over in his chair. Standing not ten inch's from where he had been was a boy no older than two holding a stuffed dog.

"Inari" Tazuna said looking at the boy "don't be rude and scare guests like that" all the boy did in return is stick his tongue at the old man and run into the kitchen where his mother was. "Sorry" Tazuna apologized " my grandson, he's two years old and going through his 'I don't need you I'm independent' phase"

"You don't say" Naruto grunted as he pulled himself from the floor " but if you're the grandfather and if I'm right and Tsunami-san is his mom who's his dad?" .It was then that he noticed Tazuna's sad expression. "I'm afraid" Tazuna paused trying to get the words to come out "he's no longer with us."

Realizing his mistake, Naruto suddenly found the table top very interesting and mumbled " I'm sorry". Shaking his hand Tazuna replied " forget it brat, how were you supposed to know?" a long silence soon fallowed.

The awkward moment was broken however, as Tsunami walked into the room carrying four dishs in her arms as Inari clung to her leg. Leaning close to Tazuna Naruto whispered " I though you said he was in his 'Independent phase'?" Covering the side of his mouth Tazuna whispered back "he's also in his I'm clingy to mommy phase, it's all very confusing" to which Naruto sweatdropped and almost fell over again.

" I hope you boys are hungry, I made extra helpings of dinner tonight." She smiled laying the food on the table.

Tazuna's face did a complete flip from sad and depressed to happy and excited. " Brat, wait till you try her cooking, I swear it's the best in wave!" after that was said Tazuna began to shovel the food as fat as he could.

"Oh dad, you say that about everything I cook" Tsunami giggled as he wolfed down his food like a starving dog. "But it's true!" Tazuna yelled before resuming to devour his dinner quickly.

All Naruto did however, was sit and stare at it, which Tsunami noticed, "Is something wrong Naruto? You haven't touched your food. Do you not like it?"

"No! No! Nothing like that! It's just I don't know what it is." He stated quickly not to offend Tsunami. "It's Hayashi rice, you've never had it before?" Tazuna stated curiously.

At narutos indication he had not " just try it you baka" finished tazuna getting the last few pieces of rice off his plate while thinking _'how can he not have had this stuff before? It's a common dish in any house so…ah doesn't matter, none of my buisness.'_

Naruto hesitantly took a spoonful of the strange food and after a moment took a bite. For a minute he did nothing but sit there with the spoon still in his mouth. Then faster than even Tazuna had, Naruto began to devoure the strange food. "this is great!!!" Naruto yelled between spoonfuls of rice.

' _you'd thnik he had never eaten anything before'_ both Tsunami and Tazuna thought as the younge blond inhailed the food in front of him.

Soon, between Naruto's and Tazuna's appitiets the dinner was soon finished off and while Tsunami took care of the dishs while Inari fallowed her, Tazuna began to strike up a coversation with Naruto.

" Huh, I see," Tazuna said " so your from a ninja village and you left to go on this 'training journey' to get stronger?" as Naruto nodded his head " yep, thats exactly why I decided to leave my village"

"Thats a good story brat" Tazuna said while looking at Naruto with lazy, suspicious eyes. "But aren't you a little young to be traveling alone like this?" Naruto stared at him a little til he replied " It's not like I didn't tell them I was leaving, besides if I'm going to be a ninja I have to get stronger"

"Fair enough brat" Tazuna replied " but what about your parents? Bet they didn't like this idea" Tazuna asked, smirking as he took a sip of his drink. All Naruto did was smile in return and say " well that's not a problem, I don't have any."

This of course caused Tazuna to spit out what was in his mouth and fall onto the floor. When he regained his composure he changed the subject as quick as he could. "So, uh, brat you said something about being a ninja right?".

Naruto nodded his head at this and began to tell Tazuna all about being a ninja from the kinds of jutsu he had seen and heard about to they way missions were given out and paid.

And at the end of it he half said/yelled "but I don't want to be just any ninja! I want to be the best ninja ever! Even more , I want to be the leader of the village , the hokage!"

Tazuna gave him a smirk and said " You got spunk brat, but what kind of ninja wears that?" as he pointed to Naruto's orange clothing " I thought ninja's were supposed to wear dark clothing, not that monstrosity." Naruto looked at his cloth's in disgust and said "it's all I got to wear"

'_Definitly a orphan" _Tazuna thought as he watched Naruto fuss over his cloth's. Looking at a clock on the wall Tazuna simply said "getting kind of late so you and Inari better get up stairs and get ready for bed." Naruto nodded and ran up the stairs with the chiled.

Tazuna looked over at Tsunami and asked " you head what he said huh?" as Tsunami nodded. " That explains everything he's done up til now" Tazuna sighed as he rubbed the back of his head. "I just wish there was something we could do for him" Tsunami said with a sad face. Tazuna however smiled and asked "how about we.." and began to whisper in her ear.

Her face brightened immeadietly and she said "Dad, you may be old, but your still as clever as a fox." Tazuna scoffed at this and mumbled " I'm not that old."

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The next morning after a quiet breakfast with Tazuna, Tsunami, and Inari, Naruto began to gather his things and make for the door only to run the family waiting for him outside. "So brat, you're leaving huh?" Naruto only nodded and replied " got to get going, got a lot of place's to see and only a few years to do it."

Tazuna smiled " well we couldn't let you leave without some parting gifts now could we brat?" Naruto sighed and asked " your never going to call me by my name are you? And what you mean by gifts?"

Tsunami walked up to him and gave him a slip of paper and a few coins. A curious look from Naruto told her he didn't understand. "It's payment for saving my purse, I heard what you talked about last night, about how ninja's get paid for each mission they do for someone.

Well it's not much but I'm sure when you get back to your village I'm sure that note will help get you a fair payment." Naruto opened the small note and found it was like the ones people who hired ninja's would write to show the mission had been completed. He put it in his pocket and smiled brightly at Tsunami in thanks.

Then Inari walked up to him handed him a small bento box and said " enjoy it while it lasts" he turned around and walked back inside with Tsunami. " The only thing he says to me the whole time I'm here and it's barley a sentence," Naruto said as he looked at the small lunch in his hand.

" Look at it this way brat, at least he talks to you" Tazuna said before he tossed him a brown package, which Naruto caught clumsily. "I found a couple of my old cloth's in the attic last night so I thought you needed them a lot more than I did." Tazuna gave him a smirk but Naruto just looked at him suspiciously.

" Look old man I may be young but I'm smart enough to know this was your idea, so why help me?" Tazuna looked at him seriously and simply said " I know the life of a ninja is hard, so you need all the help you can get. Besides, true strength comes from other who care for you" Naruto smiled at this _' he sounds just like the old man back home'. _

Naruto then noticed Tazuna was looking over his shoulder to see if anyone was watching before reaching under his shirt "But this gift is between you and me…" Tazuna quickly and quietly slipped Naruto another, smaller package. " Just don't open it till your older"

After Tazuna gave Naruto directions out of the village and watched him till he disappeared into the crowd he shut the door and walked into the kitchen to find Tsunami playing with Inari. "You think we will ever see him again?" Tsunami asked as she saw him walk into the room.

"Yeah," Tazuna said smiling "Something tells me we're going to see him again."

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It was a few hours after Naruto left the house that he found himself in a small forest. He quickly took out the other package that Tazuna had given him. "No way am I waiting to see what he gave me" Naruto said as he gently tore the brown paper from the give only to find a book

Picking it up he read the title to himself "huh, Icha Icha Paradise huh? Wonder what it's about." Opening the bright orange book he began to read the first few lines his face growing redder with each word.

For once Naruto's comprehension of language was his downfall. Barely halfway down the first page all the blood rushing to Naruto's face flew out his nose and he passed out. His last thoughts were _' I'm going to get that old bastard if it's the last thing I do'_

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Well here it is folks! In the next few chapter's we will see Naruto grow in strength as a ninja and person. Can't say when it will be out but I will try to get it to you as fast as I can.

Later!


	4. Mist's hidden devil, Snows shining angel

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto if I did naruto wouldn't be as dumb, there would be a lot more blood, and he and hinata would be together from day one. I also don't own any anime crossover elements I add in my story. I do however own any techniques and/or ideas I come up with in my story where noted.

Well everyone here's the next chapter! Thanks for your patience It looked like my girlfriend and me were gonna break up so that really put me off writing my story. I also tried to make this one longer and better. As much as I like to write this, my college that eats up all my time and life comes first. Parts of it slowed me down but now it's here.

Also just so my readers know in this fic, Haku's a girl. I mean COME ON!!! There is no way with a face like that she could be a he!

I made this chapter the longest yet to make up for how long it took to get it done.

Anyway,

Read and review what you think!

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The land of waves earned its name well. Consisting of a chain of islands it often experienced the worst storms possible, tidal waves, storms, and floods that were not uncommon to the isolated masses of land.

However, it had earned another name as well. It was also known as the hidden mist, a land shrouded from view from the cool air offshore flowing over the warm ocean surrounding the land. This created many problems for travelers and ships trying to find their way.

Naruto however, was only just learning how annoying it could be.

" The hell all this damn fog come from?! I finally learn some jutsu and get some time to train my bloodline, the very next day I wake up in this!" Naruto shouted this as he used his sheathed sword to clear a path and tried to find his way out of the thick brush he had somehow wandered into as he traveled in the thick, never ending mist.

"I cant even read my scrolls anymore, if I do they'll get soaked! Not to mention my book," Naruto said in a depressed sigh "I was really looking forward to rereading that chapter with Asami-hime and that leaf ninja who saves her from those bandits!" It's true, after he had regained consciousness from excessive blood loss, Naruto had sworn off reading that book, well for a while anyway.

He had constantly remembered the few lines in his head that he had managed to read before passing out and his curiosity grew and grew till he couldn't stand it anymore. Soon after that he started to read the book again. He found despite it being such a perverted piece of literature, it was surprisingly well written and while he swore to himself he would never become a pervert like some other men did, he did start to have more appreciation for girls than before.

And yes it had been about two months since Naruto left Tazuna and family's house and he had thrown himself straight into his work as soon as he felt he had traveled far enough from the small town. He had taken a crack at the jutsu he had copied from the forbidden scroll but had only managed to get three so far.

The first he had mastered was the **Kage Bunshin no Justu, **which he had hands down in one day's time. He found while it was harder to make a academy level bunshin, he could create dozens of kage bunshin clones and not even feel tired. He made the conclusion that with his tendency to over use his chakra, he overloaded the normal bushins and made it a priority to learn the minimum amount of chakra for any jutsu he learned. Although he knew he had massive reserves of chakra that he probably never run out of, he figured it was better safe than sorry to not waste as much as possible.

The other two jutsu however, took about a week to learn properly.

The first being **Bunshin Daibakuha, **which if used properly allowed a bunshin clone to explode. However, Naruto at first had trouble controlling the clone's explosive power. He had nearly blown himself apart several dozen times while practicing it.

By the time he had learned it He had abandoned what remained of his orange clothing and started to wear some of the clothes Tazuna had given him. He was glade he now had something he could call a wardrobe consisting of a white shirt, black shorts with plenty of pockets for his stuff and black sandals.

The final Jutsu he had finished learning was **Shuriken Kage Bushin no Jutsu**, which allowed him to turn a single shuriken into a hundred or more depending on how much chakra he put into it.

As for his bloodline, he had worked with what elements he knew he had. He found that with elements like wind and water he could very easily control the way they moved where as with fire, earth, and lightning he had to concentrate a lot more or risk losing control while using it or doing nothing at all.

But by a stroke of unheard of luck, Naruto had even found a new power when he really needed it. He found that he could control plants.

"It was a good thing I found out when I did" Naruto said to himself as he reminisced about that day not so long ago.

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Flashback

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" I'M SO DAMN HUNGRY!!!!" this was the shout Naruto let out as he walk/dragged himself down a dirt road in a seemingly endless field of what could barely be called tree's. He had eaten what remained of the food from home and hadn't eaten much of anything since three days ago.

Coupled with the intense physical training he had been putting himself through recently, his hunger had grown considerably. However, he had little luck in finding anything edible at all. In fact most of the plant life he had been passing so far was either dead or dying by the look of the trees and shrubs around him.

Leaning himself against one of dying trees, he used a trace amount of chakra to stick to the bark or risk falling over. He looked at it and absentmindedly thought to himself 'Huh, this is a nashi tree, if it were alive I could get some fruit from it but..' gripping one of the thin branches close to him he broke it off easily ' looks like this one will be dead really soon if not right now.'

"Where have I seen one of these trees before?" Naruto wondered to himself before smiling at the memory "Oh yeah, Iruka-sensei showed me one of these when he took the class on that trip before I left." Thinking to himself happily about how Iruka had helped him get the fruit from the tree and sharing it with his favorite teacher, Naruto never saw the tree slowly start to grow a new branch as it twisted and turned it's way down to him like a snake.

"Well that's enough of that" Naruto muttered to himself as he turned around " I better.."

WHACK!!!!

"ITAI!"

Naruto never got to finish his sentence as he just ran his head right into the newly grown branch. "Ow! What hit me!" Naruto shouted as he rubbed his forehead gently, trying to lessen the pain. When he finally regained his composure, he found a new branch right in his path " what the hell, that wasn't there a second ago." Looking closely at the branch he found that unlike the other ones he had seen this one was alive. However more important to him at the moment, surrounded by delicate white flowers, there was a large orange orb hanging from the branch.

" Is that?" Naruto asked himself not believing his own eyes as he tentatively grasped the fruit and pulled it off the branch and held it in his hands. It took another minute before Naruto's brain reacted and he shouted, "It is! It's a nashi!" He began to devour the fruit in huge bites and in seconds all that remained was the core. Naruto savored the refreshing taste of the fruit in his mouth as its flavor brought his appetite under control.

Now with something in his stomach, Naruto began to try to find out how a nearly dead tree, which up till a moment ago was about ready to break apart, could suddenly start producing fruit. "Hm, lets see this tree was certainly dead a moment ago," Naruto muttered to himself as he walked around it, looking at all sides till he was standing right back where he started from. Placing his hand against the tree he continued, "then I put my hand against it and remembered Iruka-sensei showing me a tree like this …"

Naruto stopped in mid thought as it suddenly dawned on him what had happened and a huge smirk took over his face.

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End flashback

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'I'm glade I found out about this new power of my bloodline when I did, I don't think I could have one much farther without something to eat' Naruto mused to himself smiling now that he could make his own food if need be.

While he was thinking of all this, Naruto hand finally found the edge of the forest he had been looking for and it even seemed that the fog began to lift. Unfortunately, he found that it was also the edge of a steep hill that was far too risky for him to try to climb down from seeing as how wet the ground was and offer no support to any weight put on it. " Well at least now I'm out that damn forest" Naruto said looking down the hill to find what looked like from where he was a hot spring if the steam rising out the water was any indication. He was surprised to find hot springs out in the middle of nowhere like this but he wasn't one to look away from an opportunity like this.

"Well looks like my lucks changing," Naruto smiled as the thought of taking a nice hot bath passed in his mind and he leaned a little more to get a better view of his new destination. However, luck is fleeting as at that moment Naruto's foot put a little too much weight on the soft mud of the hill and the inevitable resulted as it crumbled beneath him and he fell down the embankment all the while cursing and yelling obscenities as his sword fell from his grip and a strap from his backpack containing all of his ninja gear broke, letting it roll away into a bush.

"KUSO!!!!"

"GOD DAMN IT!!!!!"

"SON OF A BIT…."

**SPLASH!!!!!!!**

After his trip down hill came to an end, Naruto found himself enjoying that bath a lot sooner than he would of liked. Dragging himself to the edge of the spring with his eyes closed, he started grabbing for anything he could use to get the water from his eyes.

His hands brushed over something his mind registered as cloth. Thinking it was his; he used it to wipe his eyes off so he could see. Naruto soon wished he hadn't because at that moment he found the cloth he had used to wipe his eyes was not his. What he had in fact used was a green sleeve from what he could tell was part of a kimono.

Naruto had seen all the cloths Tazuna had given him and not one of them was a kimono. 'Well if this isn't mine, then that can only mean….' Naruto thought only to freeze as he head a splash from behind him. Slowly, Naruto turned around to find someone suddenly come from under the surface of the spring and turn their head so they were looking over his or her shoulder at him. But he knew as soon as he saw the face it was… 'a girl' Naruto completed his thought as said girl who looked about his age slowly widened her eyes upon seeing him.

While he could only see her back and, fortunately for Naruto, a towel covered her modesty, he couldn't but help but let his eyes wander down her face to the most he could see. Suddenly realizing what he was doing he developed a small blush on his face as he shook his head slightly and thought to himself '_Why did I reread that damn book Tazuna gave me a second time last night before I went to bed?'_ Shaking the thoughts from his head he tried to focus on not getting the beating of a lifetime as his eyes once again focused on hers.

Both of them stayed like that for what seemed like hours when it hand really only been a few minutes. Breaking the tension in the air, Naruto shyly said "uh … hi"

Naruto's words seem to bring her out of her shock as her face suddenly became as red as a tomato and Naruto could only hope she took this well.

Of course she took a stranger suddenly joining her in the bath and grabbing her clothes as well as one could have expected.

"AHHHHHHH!!!!! PERVERT!!!!" Her scream was heard through out the spring as Naruto vainly tried to escape from harm. He leapt out of the water and as soon as his feet touched the ground he ran as fast as his legs would carry him into the forest, only to stop a few feet away as he felt something sharp fly past his face and cut his cheek. Turning around slowly he saw somehow above the girl there were what appeared to be dozens of needles floating in midair.

'_Oh no… she's a ninja!' _Naruto knew the only thing more dangerous than a pissed off girl was a pissed off kunoichi.

Naruto looked at the girl again to find a wicked smile on her face and suddenly as if on command, the needles shot towards him. "HOLY SHIT!" acting quickly and determined not to die, Naruto dropped down and punched the ground while forcing chakra into his fist, creating a pillar of earth and mud in front of him that just in the nick of time grew large enough to stop most of the needles as they impacted on the improvised wall while the rest flew past him. Naruto leaned against it and slowly sank down to regain his breath_' that was a close one, didn't think I was gonna finish that in time, hell didn't know if that was going to work' _he looked to his side and saw a few of the sharp needles she had attacked him with embedded in his only means of defense fall loose. He picked one up as it fell to the side of where he was crouched down and found it was surprisingly cold to the touch.

'_What the, this is cold as hell, wait is this…'_ Naruto took it between two fingers and snapped it like a twig _'this is made of ice,'_ Naruto smirked _'clever, she somehow turns the water and moister in the air to ice and can use them like weapons, that's how she attacked me so fast but…'_ making a cross shaped handseal _' that could be the flaw if she need water to make the needles all I got to do is make it away from the spring, there's not much moisture in the air deeper in the forest'._

The girl watched the mound of mud intently; she knew that her last barrage of ice needles hadn't even touched their intended target thanks to him somehow making that mud rise up and protect him. But it was only a matter of time till he made his move _' and that's when I'll get him, nobody gets away with peeking at me if I have anything to say about it'_

Suddenly a cry of "**Kage Bunshin no Justu!!!**" came from behind the pillar as a cloud of smoke exploded out covering the mound and copies of the boy suddenly began jumping out of the smoke in all directions. Acting quickly despite her surprise the girl began showering the blonds with needles causing many to puff out of existence. But it seemed to get her nowhere fast because as soon as one was destroyed another three took its place. Then she noticed out of the corner of her eye that three blonds were running into the woods.

Throwing three needles at them she saw as one jumped and avoided the needle intended for it only to take the one aimed at the middle in the back and disappear into smoke. To any civilian it would have looked like chance that one clone would jump only to get hit by something else. However, to the trained kunoichi there was only one reason that happened… it sacrificed itself to save the original. She jumped over to where her cloths were and as soon as she grabbed them, jumped into the trees after her targets.

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The last two Naruto's were running as if the devil himself was right behind them. They had managed to get away from the crazy ice-throwing girl and entered into a small clearing, stopping momentarily to catch their breath from the long sprint they had to do in order to escape.

"Oh Man! I thought I was going to die back there!" One Naruto said between breaths as he leaned a hand against a tree. " You know, this was entirely your fault!" the other Naruto half yelled as it leaned its back against the same tree.

"What did you just say you stupid clone!?" the first Naruto exclaimed grabbing the other one by the shirt. "You heard me dumbass!" the other Naruto said grabbing the others shirt as well "If you didn't pull shit like that back there then we wouldn't get into situations like this!" " It was an accident and you know it!" Naruto yelled back. The two glared at each other in anger until the second one looked to the side and suddenly pushed the other out of the way while yelling " LOOK OUT!!!" The clone was suddenly pelted by a half dozen senbon and after falling to the ground puffed away into smoke.

The one remaining Naruto looked up and on a tree branch saw the girl he had accidentally caught bathing fully dressed in the kimono and had senbon between each finger of her hand. "Aw, crap!" Naruto turned to run only to get pelted by the deadly needles in his arms and legs. Falling onto his side he heard the girl land onto the ground and walk up to him. Turning his head to stare up at her she asked him in a voice laced with anger and the promise of pain " Any last words?" However the girl was taken aback as the boy smiled and replied " Yeah, Poof" and he did just that, suddenly the boy exploded into smoke leaving only the senbon to fall to the ground.

The girl stared openly in shock, as the one she believed to be the original was actually another clone. It suddenly dawned on her that he had managed to get away from her and she would not be able to get her revenge. She began shouting in anger, as she realized all this never noticing she was being watched from a bush a good distance away.

Naruto watched the spectacle of the girl make a fool of herself with a smile as she cursed perverts and him in particular. _'I wonder if all girls are this crazy…'_ Naruto thought to himself. His musing however was cut short as he heard from behind him a twig snap and then a sharp hit to the head knocked him out.

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Naruto slowly began to regain his consciousness. As he did this the pain in his head returned and he remembered something had hit him before he had blacked out. He began to try to move only to feel he had been tied to something with rope, he also felt a dull pain in his shoulders and upon trying, found he could not move his arms_ 'sigh just my luck' _"Zabuza –sama! He's waking up!" Naruto's eyes shot open at the sound of that voice and when he looked up he say the girl he had ran from sitting in front of him with a bag of senbons in front of her and a evil smile on her face. He looked behind her and saw that all his ninja gear was piled neatly a good distance out of his reach next to a small fire.

He then saw from the corner of his eye someone get up. A tree blocked much of his view but he could clearly see a arm reach out from the shadows and picked up with ease the largest sword Naruto had ever seen in his life. The light from the flames making the sharp edge of the chuck of metal that could barely be called a blade all the more intimidating as it was pulled free from the ground.

And as the man stepped out of the shadows Naruto became even more nervous. He was a very dangerous looking person with bandages covering his face from his nose down. He had sharp eyes, that of a killers, and with a sword like that Naruto knew this man must be a shinobi and probably a very strong one at that.

Naruto looked at his situation from a strategic stand point _' lets see I'm tied to a tree, It looks like there are needles in my arms to cut off my chakra and my movement, there is a pissed off kunoichi and very scary shinobi who are watching my every move and I lost all my ninja gear which is now in the hands of the crazy ninja holding me captive… Yep I'm screwed.'_

"Zabuza-sama what are we going to do with him? Whatever it is, I say we make it slow and painful!" The girl said gleefully pulling sharp senbons from the bag and held a few in each hand ready at a moments notice to use them.

Ignoring her for the moment, The large man walked right up to Naruto and looked at him in the eyes for a minute before saying in a rough voice "Haku, go find some more fire wood for tonight" the girl turned in shock and was about to argue with him but the look in his face told her there was no arguing this command. She sighed and shot one more angry glare at Naruto before she walked off into the woods leaving Naruto all alone with the sword carrying man.

Once the girl was out of sight the man looked at Naruto straight in the eyes once again before saying " ok now kid, drop that stupid mask of yours" Naruto looked at him like he was crazy before he asked "what mask?". The man grunted and said " your face may make you look like a happy idiot, but when I looked into your eyes, for one second I saw something completely different so drop it or else." He finished this statement by gripping his swords handle harder than before and hefted it over Naruto to show his threat was true.

Naruto sighed before he let his head drop slightly. Just enough so the man couldn't see his face. But when he raised it, it was completely different from the happy go luck idiot he had portrayed himself to be.

'_Those eyes…" _the man thought as he looked into Naruto's sharp, steeled eyes that seemed to take in every detail in front of him but at the same time seemed so full of sorrow and pain _' his eyes are just like Haku's when I found her, so one as young as him knows the world isn't what it seems to be, that it can be cruel and uncaring for even a child like him.'_

Putting these thoughts aside for them moment he got right to the point with his question "I'm only going to ask this once, did you knowingly look at Haku or was it an accident" Naruto shook his head wildly before saying/yelling "I swear by the hokage of the leaf! It was an accident!!!"

The man began to laugh slightly as he shoved the sword into the ground and said, " so your from the village hidden in the leaves are you?" Naruto's mouth was wide-open shock before he asked "how the hell you know that?"

The man reached behind him and pulled Naruto's stuff to his side " you don't find an average person carrying this many ninja tools, and you just said yourself that 'by the hokage of the leaf' so from this I think you a ninja wannabe out to get stronger or something seeing as how you don't have one of these" he said pointing to his hitai-ate.

Naruto sweat dropped at his remarks _' I cant believe he guessed everything from just that,' _Naruto began to mentally berate himself for such a stupid mistake '_ I really need to learn to keep my big mouth shut'_

Suddenly the man sat in front of Naruto and said, " Your lucky I decided to not to let you be turned into a pin cushion runt, Haku seemed very keen on doing that. You know it's not the smartest thing peeking on girls." Despite the sentence that had just been spoken Naruto's brain had only registered one word out of all of them… runt.

"WHO ARE YOU CALLING SO SHORT HE WOULDENT MEASURE UP TO A GRAIN OF RICE YOU NO EYEBROW FREAK WITH AN OVERGROWN BUTTER KNIFE?!" Naruto yelled as he struggled against the rope kicking his feet in the mans direction

" WHEN I GET FREE, I'LL SHOW YOU WHO IS COMPAREABLE WITH A FLEA!!!!"

Zabuza's eye twitched at that _'I didn't say any of that' _as Naruto continued to yell and scream obscenities Zabuza grew more and more annoyed. "SHUT UP BRAT OR YOULL BE EVEN SHORTER TO THE GROUND!."

Naruto's anger grew at Zabuza's choice of remarks" NO SECOND RATE NINJA IS GOING TO TELL ME WHAT TO DO!" Naruto yelled making the man even angrier at him. "Listen here brat my name is Zabuza Momochi, the demon of the mist!" this made Naruto stop and look at him. _'heh, that's right soon this little shinobi wannabe will be begging me to spare him' _Zabuza thought smugly to himself. Naruto however got a look of confusion on his face "uh, I don't think I've heard of you." This of course made Zabuza almost fall over.

"How can you not have heard of me?! Zabuza of the bloody mist, master of the silent killing style of swordsmanship, who single handedly killed a class of ninja graduates without any hesitation! One of the seven swordsmen of the mist and an A-ranked missing nin for attempting to kill the Mizukage!!! And you say you have never heard of me!!!" at Naruto's indication he had not Zabuza let forth a stream of words that could have taught Tayuya a thing or two. Naruto meanwhile watched in fascination as Zabuza looked like he had lost his mind.

When he finally calmed down enough, Naruto asked, " So, you're trying to tell me you're a ninja who can use a sword? That's great! You could teach me how to use mine!" Zabuza turned and stared at him with a blank expression "and why would I do something like that brat, I'm not interested in teaching little children tricks to show their friends"

Zabuza's dismissing attitude ticked Naruto off to no end "Oh yeah?! Then what about that girl who hangs out with you? Why would you take her with you and not me?" Zabuza seemed to zone out at Naruto's words as he stood up and started to walk away.

Zabuza sank down in front of the fire and stared at it intently, poking it with a stick "She's a special case, She unlike you is of use to me. She could the last of her kind with her kekki genkai and I intend us her talents to help my plan to take over Kirigakure, the village hidden in the mist." His gaze hardened as he stared deeper into the fire seemingly lost in a trance with the dancing flames "Then and only then, when that idiot of a Mizukage is killed will people like her be able to live happily and that pointless witch hunt of a civil war will be avenged"

Naruto looked on as Zabuza seemed lost in his own thoughts before saying "I may not know what happened, but I can tell you that training me will not be a waste of time" Drawing Zabuza's attention Naruto continued "I do not want to waste your time or mine for that matter, I only wish to become stronger than I am now. So please, train me to use my sword and I will help you to reach your goal while you do" Naruto finished with determined eye's that met Zabuza's head on. "That is my promise to you, and I never break a promise to anyone, my nindo wont let me"

" All my life, I have been looked down upon. My village hates me for a reason I don't know. But, I have had to live with that everyday for six years." Zabuza's expression went from intrigue to understanding, knowing the story about how something like that all too well "I left my village to become stronger that is true, but I want to do this so I can prove to everyone that I deserve their respect and admiration by protecting them as a shinobi, even more as their hokage"

Naruto watched, as Zabuza seemed if he was torn between two thoughts and decided a final push was in order. "Besides, I have my own kekki genkai, it's probably as unique as her's and I think I'm the first to have it, at least to the best of my knowledge I am. As long as I serve you, it will be yours to command"

Zabuza was now very intrigued with this information _' if he does have a bloodline and it's as good as he says it is, then it will make my promise all the easier to carry out' _Zabuza thought at the prospect of two powerful bloodline at his disposal. "Well brat, what's your bloodline called?" Naruto looked thoughtful for a moment " That's a good question actually, I haven't thought of a name yet" Zabuza sweat dropped at this.

Naruto closed his eyes in thought and after a few minutes seemed to come to a decision "its name is Butai Ketsueki" Naruto said in a proud voice. " Element blood huh? Well, that's certainly a interesting name". Naruto nodded " think of it, two unique bloodlines at your use, you could complete more missions faster, meaning more money for you to finance whatever your doing."

Before Naruto could say anything more Zabuza interrupted him. "Brat before we go any further, think carefully about your decision" Naruto stared at Zabuza with a questioning face "There may come a day that while your under my wing that you will have to kill someone for reasons you don't know, can you do that?" Zabuza asked watching for Naruto's reaction. Naruto looked Zabuza straight in the face " When I decided to become a shinobi, I knew there would come a day that eventually I would have to take a life. I know full well what that means but…" Naruto said as his face became one of determination " I will decide who should die, and even then only if I have no choice"

Zabuza seemed to think this over in his head a bit before saying " If I let you train under me then I wont take it easy because you're still young, you'll probably die the first week of training" Naruto gave a genuine smile at this a said" I wouldn't have it any other way Zabuza-Sensei"

"Glade we have and understanding then" Zabuza said as he took Naruto's sword and put it with his stuff. "Hey! What the hell are you doing with my sword Zabuza-sensei?!" Zabuza looked at him and replied " You are going to get no sword training until I think you are ready, and until then you're on a strict work out of weights, physical, and mental training" Naruto sweat dropped as he watched Zabuza take his personal backpack and drop pound after pound of weights from the pack onto the ground. Naruto had been wearing the weights he had swiped from the academy but they were nowhere near what Zabuza apparently had planned for him.

Then a thought crossed Naruto's mind "Zabuza-sensei how are we going to tell that crazy girl I'm going to be traveling with you?"

Zabuza seemed to smile under the bandages.

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Haku was slowly walking back to the camp, a bundle of wood under each arm. It had been a while since Zabuza had given her the task and she was sure that he had killed the boy while she was gone. "Serves him right for peeking on me" she thought as she started to hear laughter in the clearing up ahead. She smiled knowing Zabuza had taken care her 'problem'.

As Haku walked into the clearing she wore a bright smile on her face "Zabuza-sama I'm back! Where do you want the wood?" Zabuza looked over his shoulder and pointed next to him "put it over here Haku, you find enough?"

"Hai!" she smiled as she walked up next to him " I found a lot not far from…" she cut her sentence short as soon as she was standing next to Zabuza. Thanks to her new position next to him, his back no longer obstructed her view past him and what she saw shocked her. There was the boy who had caused her so much embarrassment, untied from the tree and sitting across the fire from Zabuza as if he was an old friend.

Naruto stared at her with a smile and said "Haku-chan, can I help you with that wood?" In response, her mouth went slack, her eyes went wide, and the wood she held in both arms fell unceremoniously to the ground.

" Is that a no?" Naruto asked curiously as she found her ability to speak again as she pointed at him "WHAT THE HELL IS THAT PERVERTED BASTARD DOING UNTIED FROM THE TREE?!!!"

"Language, Haku" Zabuza said lightly in mirth of the situation " I decided to let young Naruto here train under me in swords as long as he can. I think he will make a excellent member of our little group don't you?"

Shaking her head wildly she cried/wailed " NO I DON'T!!!!" Naruto pretended to take a look of shock to his face "Why not Haku-chan? Is it something I said?" she was instantly in front of him gripping the neck of his shirt tightly and yelled " You know damn well the reason why! And who said you could call me HAKU-CHAN?!" Naruto pointed over her shoulder and replied "Zabuza-sensei did"

Haku gave Zabuza a glare to which he just shrugged and said "what? If we're going to be together a while we should all be close right? Besides Haku, I think you might actually get to like him a lot more than you think, your already fighting like a couple" Zabuza teased while smirking as they froze in place staring at him.

Both Naruto's and Haku's lit up like a tomato at his last words. They looked at each other and quickly jumped apart; looking in opposite directions they screamed " YOUR INSANE!!!!"

Zabuza's laughter filled the clearing once again as he watched the two avoid each other's gaze like the plague. Seeing as the tension in the air needed to be broken Zabuza decided to try to please everyone at the same time "Tell you what Haku, I'll let you be in charge of his dodging and avoidance training while he's with us, in fact I'll let you handle taijutsu lessons too, sound fair to you?" Haku looked at him thoughtfully for a minute before once again that sickeningly sweet smile came to her face and Naruto upon seeing it knew whatever training was going to happen with her was going to be hell.

Suddenly Zabuza's sword slammed down in front of Naruto, startling him as he saw how close he was to losing his legs. "Well brat, welcome to kenjutsu 101, or as I like to call it, Zabuza's training from hell." Zabuza said staring down at Naruto like the cat who had cornered the mouse. Naruto however had only one thought in his mind after this stunt.

' _I take back what I said earlier, now I'm screwed'_

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Time skip 2 ½ years

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"You know, you were a lot harder to find then I thought you would be. But then again your men weren't exactly as forth coming with information as I thought they would." Naruto said as he stepped into the shadowed entrance a ruined and broken shrine the only light filtering from the moon outside through the broken window's and various small holes in the broken roof of the spacious room. It was illuminated enough that Naruto was able to see his target sitting across the other side of the room, a huge man with a beard wearing shambled armor obviously gathered in pieces and thrown together that made him all the more intimidating. He had a crazed look in his eye as he held a long polished sheath in one hand and a cup of sake in the other

"What the hell, I said for that pathetic village to gather it's valuables for tomorrows daily offering and they send some little runt after me? I don't know whether to laugh or be insulted!" The man said with a grin as he threw the sake cup over his shoulder and stood up, nearly reaching the ceiling in proper height.

"Hmm, I really don't care what you think at this point" Naruto said as he slid the door shut behind him and stepped out of the shadows. Naruto was now as tall as most eight year olds were. He had grown his hair out longer to which a short ponytail that ended at his neck was tied. His wardrobe had changed dramatically to which he now sported a black shirt and pants that were tucked into regular black shinobi sandals and fingerless gloves that ran up o his elbows. His kunai holder was tied to his leg just above the rim of his shoes. A white cloak covered much of him but one could clearly see his katana jutting from inside the cloak so only the handle was visible. The one thing of all this however that was most noticeable was a white shinobi mask that was nearly identical to a certain copycat Ninja's, except for the color, that now hid his mouth and nose from view. Naruto's hair and eye's seemed to glow in the moon's light, almost making him looked like a demon as his eyes were much brighter than usual.

" Not like it matters much anyways seeing as I have to fulfill my contract with the village you've been terrorizing for the last month and make sure you don't ever comeback, whatever feelings a two bit crime boss wannabe like you has about this is of no consequence to me" Naruto pulled the cloak slightly to the side and grasped the handle of his sword in his right hand, pulling it free of it's black sheath, the moons light dancing along it's perfectly sharpened edge.

"Normally I don't like killing, if I felt like it I would give my target a chance to walk away seeing as how many are wanted dead for the stupidest reasons, but your one of the few that I actually think the world can do without. Don't you agree mass murderer Gokai Kiru?"

The man grin widened as he heard his name "well, well so the little child knows who I am. And yet he willingly sought me out, very brave and very foolish." Naruto just stared at him " I'm interested to know how you found out who I really was seeing as I haven't told anyone, even my men, my actual name". Naruto gave the man a bored look "I found a lot about you from my sensei's contacts, seems you made your first appearance in grass country where you slaughtered a whole farming community in one night. You killed a lot of innocent people there, mostly women and children if his sources are right. Then your trail of corpses led you to a port city where you killed a boat owner so you could get to wave. Eventually you form this gang of bandit's from local small time criminals and the like. I just can't figure out why you'd go from murder to thievery, care to tell me why before I help you pass on to hell?" Naruto asked watching as the man began to snicker insanely as he pulled a strange sword from the sheath in his hands.

It barely even resembled an actual sword, the top was shaped like a cleaver and what looked like teeth from a dozuki saw covered the edge of the blade from the top of the blade all the way to the hilt, but what was even more disturbing was the amount of dried blood on it. The presumably once pristine blade looked as if it had never been cleaned, even thin caked on deposits of the fluid could be seen in several places along the serrated teeth. _'This guy is a lot more dangerous than the average bounty Zabuza-sensei has me track down, I cant take his fight as lightly I as I had hoped. '_

"I got to say brat whoever your sensei is has pretty good sources, yeah I killed a those people and I enjoyed every drop of blood they let fall down to the last scream they let out while I did. But that doesn't help pay the bills you know, so I thought up this idea while carving up my first victim here in mist, why don't I gather some lowlife scum like me and raid some villages? I get to have my fun and some cash on the side." Gokai said in a smug voice, proud of his plan.

"I wish you could have seen the faces those weaklings down in the village gave me when we first got there, it was an amazing incentive killing a few to set an example for the rest. I cant wait till they give us all they have worth taking and I cut the rest of them up before I take my men to the next village" Gokai said in an excited tone as a huge grin took over his face. "And don't demean what I do with the term 'mass murder' I think myself more of an artist" Naruto raised an eyebrow at this "an artist huh?"

"Yeah an artist" Gokai said as he ran his finger along his blades edge "every cut, every piece of flesh that is broken is a work of art on the canvas that are my victims body. Outside they are so hideous. I just have to show the world their pure inner beauty. "He sighed as if in a wondrous dream before turning a eye to Naruto.

"So now" he suddenly griped his sword and charged Naruto at a surprising speed, his blade lifted over his head with both hands "how bout it kid? Want to be my latest masterpiece?!!!"

Naruto swung his sword up just in time to catch his blade on the teeth of Gokai's weapon, just inches from his shoulder. _'This guy is fast for being so big, strong too, it's taking all my strength just to keep my blade up" _Naruto forced his blade against Gokai's blade creating small sparks as he rolled to the side pulling his sword with him. His sudden movement caused Gokai's weapon to crash to the wooden floor creating a hole where Naruto had just been standing.

" Heh heh, so the little cockroach can fight back huh? I can tell your going to be especially beautiful when I cut you open" Gokai's insane smile widened as he ripped his sword out of the floor and turned to face Naruto. " Come on, fight me little cockroach, and let's see who has the better blade!"

Down on one knee while using the sword like a crutch, Naruto stared at Gokai as one of his eyes twitched _' I'm getting really tired of all the short jokes' _Naruto rose to his feet and let his sword hang loose in his hand so the tip touched the floor. He slowly walked toward Gokai, with each step he gained speed till he was in a straight run dragging his sword behind him with one hand, cutting into the wooden floor, leaving a trail behind it.

As Naruto got closer to Gokai he swung his sword catching Gokai by surprise as Naruto began to fight back harder than before. Whereas Gokai had brute strength, Naruto had speed and knowledge and in this fight Naruto seemed to have the advantage. Naruto's blade seemed to flow from strike to strike, each hit wasting as little effort and energy as possible. It looked as if Naruto was dancing a well-timed dance with a deadly intention. Naruto's attacks began to force Gokai on the defense, eventually ending up with Naruto's sword locked with Gokai's, neither of them giving an inch to the other. "What's wrong Gokai-teme, you wanted me to fight back right? Or was that all talk I heard?" Gokai's only response was a grunt as he tried to gain the upper hand of the struggle. "Hmm, Sensei might get upset if I take much longer, so I think I'll end this now"

"Hah! As if you can brat!" Gokai confidently boasted "your pathetic toothpick of a weapon can ever beat my…" Gokai's words were cut short and his face went from arrogant confidence to complete shock when he saw Naruto's sword start to push harder against his own, creating a small nick in the bloody blade. It started to slowly grow from a nick in the metal to a full-blown crack_ 'No! He's breaking my sword! How is he doing this?!'_

Then Gokai saw something out of the corner of his eye just before he felt a blunt impact of Naruto's sheath that was gripped in his free hand, to his ribs. The sudden, unexpected hit pushed Gokai to the side of Naruto and as he fell pulling his sword with him. The force exerted on Gokai's weapon finally become too much as it fractured like ice and severed into two pieces, the head of the blade went flying into one of the walls while the rest remained in his hand as he fell to the ground, nothing more than a slanted piece of metal remained on the hilt.

Naruto stood there for a moment his sword and sheath in hand held exactly where they had struck just seconds ago. He finally let his extended, crossed arms fall to his sides as he turned to face his opponent. " Every part of a blade is a weapon, even the sheath."

"Kenjutsu, the art of the sword and swordsmanship." Naruto stated, " that is what I use, you on the other hand is someone who swings a chunk of metal hoping to hit something." Naruto slid the sheath back under his cloak.

"You see Gokai, the difference between you and me when it comes to our blades is that you don't have a purpose for it while I do." Naruto said as he walked up to the now injured man who was doubled over holding one side of his body in pain. " You became obsessed with blood and death, you let it consume you."

Naruto watched f or a minute as Gokai struggled to breath on the floor " I have had to kill as well but I have a reason for it. I do it to help those who hire me to do so if I see fit to carry out the mission, I do it to help my sensei and friend to reach their goals, **I** do it so I can protect my precious people." Naruto said angerly as he stood in front of Gokai weapon in hand.

"Because of your bloodlust, you became weak and your sword reflects that. Your will was weak while mine was strong, plus you really didn't take good care of you sword at all." Naruto griped the handle of his sword tighter as he stared down at the man before him. "So my pure blade broke that defiled piece of garbage soaked blood like a twig."

Naruto took a breath and calmed himself "I should finish you off here and now, but I think the village will want to do that themselves" Gokai seemed to cough in response "your right I was a fool to challenge you" Gokai pushed himself up from the floor with one arm when suddenly he thrusted his other hand out, stabbing Naruto with what was left of his sword in his stomach. Gokai's insane smile returned to his face "heheh, kidding! I can't believe you fell for that!"

Naruto stood there, eyes wide as tears started to fall from his eyes. "That's right brat cry, it's going to make this all the sweeter when I take you back to that weak village in pieces and show what happens when you mess with me! Now show me all that beautiful blood of yours, Hahahaha!"

It was then that Gokai noticed something strange, He wasn't bleeding. His shirt was becoming wet but he could tell it wasn't blood but water that was soaking his shirt. Looking up at Naruto's face he was shocked to find more water than possible was flowing from his eye's, and what's more a smile on his masked face.

Suddenly Naruto exploded into water, soaking Gokai as he stayed there in shock "The hell…"

"Exactly" Gokai heard behind him. He turned around only to see Naruto in mid fall from a jump, sword raised overhead and aimed right at his head "I'm sending you to the one place you deserve!"

"NO! I WONT DIE BY SOME WEAKLING LIKE YOU!" anything else Gokai had to say was lost however, as Naruto landed to the side of him and as he brought his sword down he curved it so it cleanly severed Gokai's head off of his shoulders.

Gokai's body collapsed to the floor hard while his head rolled a foot away from it, his face still frozen in terror. "Oh and by the way, I'm not weak" Naruto said to the now lifeless body "it's just if I used the techniques Zabuza-sensei and Haku-chan taught me from the start of our fight then there wouldn't be anything left to show you were dead. Then how would I prove I completed the contract?"

Naruto re-sheathed his sword and began digging in his cloak looking for something, finally pulling out three pieces of paper " at least I got to use the mizu-bushin technique Zabuza-sensei taught me". Naruto threw two in opposite directions so they stuck to the walls before he bent down and put the last one onto the corpses back." Well, I guess I'll end this with a bang, man cleaning up the remains is so lame."

Naruto tore the bottom of the paper off, which caused it to start to slowly burn. Naruto got up and as he started to walk to the door, stopping for only a moment to pick up the head of his bounty before he was ready to leave.

Naruto calmly walked out of the shrine and started the trek down the stairs leading to the village below. A minute later the burning paper finally ran out then…

**BOOOOOOM!!!!**

The Shrine erupted into a massive fireball that lit up the sky. Naruto turned for a minute and watched as the flames engulf the old building quickly, and as the embers began to rise into the air he turned back around and reflected on his bounty as he walked.

" Well, that was more boring than I thought it would be." Naruto sighed, "the hardest part of the whole thing was actually finding the bastard, that was a lot of work" Naruto mused to himself "I guess these guy's were better organized than I thought" said as he walked past several men who had stood in his way to reaching his target. They were strewn around all over the steps, some were held down by tree roots, more were up to their necks in the ground, others had electrical burns on them courtesy of Naruto's bloodline. Some even still had weapons in hand from when Naruto first encountered them. Naruto however had spared them death; seeing as he would only get paid for Gokai's death, he saw no point in ending the others as well as long as they left the village alone.

Not to say he went easy on them, he had given them the beating of the year, being especially hard on a particular thug who had insulted his height; he had the honor of being thrown into a tree and whipped by branches for nearly five minute's.

"**hehehe, you did good brat, I got to say you sure know to swing that blade. Oh, and how to bring the house down! Hahaha!"**

Naruto sighed _' what the hell do you want Kyubbi? I'm not in the mood to trade insults right now.' _Naruto felt as the fox a dark grin in his mind **"Hehe, since I'm stuck in your pathetic body there's not much else to do."**

Naruto shook his head lightly at Kyubbi's response; the fox was always doing this, trying to insult his container if only to rile him up. Naruto had never had a day's peace since he had first found out about the fox during a training exercise with Zabuza and Haku, not that he was surprised. In fact finding out about having the fox in him wasn't as much a shock to Naruto as one would think. To him it just answered a lot of questions as to why his village treated him the way it did. No, the real shock came from what else Naruto found in his mind.

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Flashback

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"Zabuza-sensei, why are we doing meditation? I thought you said we were going to be doing a essential part of swordsmanship." Naruto asked as Zabuza, Haku, and himself sat under a tree.

"The most dangerous weapon a shinobi possess is not something you can hold Naruto." Zabuza said as he sat in a meditative pose, eyes closed as he spoke "It is the mind's strength that let's a ninja continue to fight long after a normal person would have given up. If your minds will is strong, your senses can never be fooled, you can overcome any obstacle, and your will can never be broken. Do you understand Naruto?"

"Hai Zabuza-sensei, I understand" Naruto said as he closed his eye's and relaxed his body. "Try to find your minds center, reach out into your mind and give yourself to the calm" Zabuza said as Naruto and Haku did as they were told. Naruto listened to Zabuza's word as he calmed his mind, relaxing into the silence. Soon Zabuza's words started getting fainter and fainter until he couldn't hear them anymore.

Opening his eyes, Naruto found he wasn't under the tree anymore. He was what looked like a labyrinth, a dimly lit maze of stairs that went in all directions even on the ceiling. And as many stairs as there were, there were just as many doors, a countless number of them filled the walls each identical to the last giving no hint to what lay inside.

"Well this is new" Naruto said to himself as he got up off the floor and looked around. "Zabuza-sensei always said I was the most complicated and confusing person he had ever met. Guess that goes for my mind too" Naruto heard footsteps behind him and after turning around Naruto came face to face with the strangest thing he had seen in his life… himself.

Well to say himself would be somewhat the right idea as it was clearly another Naruto standing across from him. He had the same body, the same whisker marks on his face and the same smile he had on his face when he was truly happy, but that's where the similarities ended.

The other Naruto had deep green colored hair and eyes. His outfit was a deep hunter green monks robe decorated with a leaf and tree design that reminded Naruto of the forests back in his village. Tied at his waist was a whip that, from what Naruto could see, leafs were growing from. _'Ok, who in the hell is this guy? He looks like me but I'm getting a weird vibe from him'_

"Hi master! I was wondering when you were going to visit us! I can't believe you're finally here!" Said the other Naruto with a goofy smile. "Who are you?" Naruto demanded getting in a loose fighting stance "Whoever you are your not me, and what the hell are you calling me master for?!" the other Naruto just kept on smiling "Your right master I'm not you, my name is Kusaki, and as to why I call you master what else am I going to call the one who commands my power?"

Naruto gave him a confused look relaxing out of his stance "What… power? What do you mean your power?" Kusaki simply smiled and shook his head " Don't you remember master? You used it just the other day when you ran into those bandits."

Naruto thought about this. It was true he had run into some bandit's on they way back to camp after earning some money as a temporary guard at a nobles house. Zabuza had felt it was a job he could complete himself seeing as it was a three-day assignment needing only one person to fill in. When the bandit's had tried to take his money Naruto had used his bloodline to tie them up in vines in the trees around him.

That's when it hit Naruto " You're my bloodline! Or at least part of it am I right?" The other Naruto's smile widened. "That's right master! My proper title is Kusaki of the plants" then Kusaki seemed to think of something "oh right! I need to introduce you to the others master! Please fallow me." Kusaki turned on his heel and started walking the way he came, with Naruto close behind.

"Others?" Naruto asked as he caught up with Kusaki only to stop as he opened one of the many doors. Once inside Naruto found it was the largest room he had ever seen.

The room was not lit any better than the previous one creating an eerie ominous feeling. There was no ceiling visible only an empty black void above but Naruto's attention was focused elsewhere. In front of Naruto was a cage. The largest cage that Naruto had seen in his life and the only thing holding it shut was a tiny slip of paper with some sort of seal on it.

"Master" Kusaki said gaining Naruto's attention " The others are coming" he finished pointing up. Naruto looked to where Kusaki was pointing to see six doors floating in the air. However unlike all the other doors he had seen so far each of these was distinct and different from the last.

One was a red color and had flame designs etched onto the surface. When Naruto looked closer he could see that at times fire would flare from the door. He looked to the one to the right and saw it had a wave design on the front. Water was dripping from under the dark blue colored door and was gathering into a puddle on the floor below. The next one was brown colored and had a carving of a mountain engraved onto it. It floated on a base of dirt that seemed to hold it up.

Naruto's eyes shifted to the next one that had a lightning design on the front. The yellow doors handle seem to constantly give off short bursts of electricity. The door right next to it was sky-blue colored and the design of a cloud could clearly be seen. A few clouds could be seen hovering round it. The last door was a bright green color various mosses and small flowers were growing on the door and nearly covered the tree design that was carved into the door.

"_That must be Kusaki's' _Naruto thought to himself looking at the last door. Suddenly, all the other doors blew open and five figures fell to the floor. Each looked like Naruto and each was unique. "Master let me introduce to the rest of your powers" Kusaki said happily as he happily pointed to one of the many Naruto's.

"This is Kaji of the flames" Kusaki pointed to the Figure that had fallen from the red door. He had orange eyes and hair and one seriously pissed off expression on his face. He wore crimson red samurai armor. Tied to his side was a rather intimidating nagamaki.

"That is Mashimizu of the waves" The figure that had fallen from the Dark blue door had deep sea colored hair and eyes. He was dressed in a fishnet shirt, swimming shorts and sandals. His face was one of cool collectiveness as he held a trident in his hands.

" This ones name is Daichi of the earth" Kusaki pointed at the Dirt brown hair colored figure. He wore a hard look to his face. He held a huge war hammer across his back. He was dressed in dirty shirt and long pants that covered the hiker boots on his feet.

"Next is Reikou of the lightning" This one was by far the strangest yet. The color of his hair and eye's was that of a lighter shade of yellow than Naruto's. He seemed to always be twitching as he held a spear unsteadily in his arms. His apparel was a straightjacket that was untied and unbound leaving the oversized sleeves to hang loose and loose pants that seemed a few sizes too big.

"And last but not least there is Tei of the air" The final form had sky blur hair and eye's with a serene smile on his face. He was dressed small open windbreaker and long jeans. The only thing he held was a folded up paper fan. _'Well I guess anything can be used as a weapon' _Naruto thought as the introductions were finished

"So master what brings you here anyways?" Tei asked interested. Before Naruto could respond Kaji interrupted " YEAH! The fucking hell _Master_!" Kaji said in a sneering tone "You think you can just drop in without a fucking explanation?!" Tei shook his head " Kaji, I know it's not in your nature but can you please keep yourself quiet so master can speak?"

Kaji glared at Tei with fury in his eyes " Listen cloud boy, you keep talking to me like that and I'll gut you like a fucking fish!" Tei just scratched his face and muttered "what a waste of energy" Tei jumped back just in time to avoid getting decapitated from Kaji's sword. Tei floated down from the jump and landed on one foot on top of one of Mashimizu's trident points.

"GOD DAMN IT! STOP JUMPING AROUND AND FIGHT ME LIKE A FUCKING MAN!" Kaji yelled in frustration. "Such language" Tei replied in false shock. Naruto watched as the two kept going at it with Kaji chasing Tei all over the room only for Tei to taunt him at every missed attack." They always act like this?" he asked the others "unfortunately yeah" Daichi said sighing as he rubbed his head with one hand, " it seems that Tei can always rub Kaji the wrong way, and then we're the ones that have to put up with it"

"Heheh, I don't know, hehe, I think it's kind of funny, heheh" Reikou said in between bouts of crazed laughter.

Once everyone had calmed down and Kaji had been restrained from chasing Tei anymore, Naruto had finally got to tell them how he had found himself in his mind. "And that all there is to it" Naruto finished he took a look around to see they each had held the same expressions since he got there.

"Say… um, why do you always have the same face's?" Naruto asked. The figures looked at each other for a second. " You see master" Mashimizu started "we represent your powers and emotions you feel. Each of us is specific to the given power so we can never change our looks". Naruto thought about this for a minute " but why can you each only control one power? Couldn't one of you do it all by yourself?"

"Hell no!" Kaji yelled, "It's not possible for one of us to do all that!" Naruto gave them a questioning eye, which Tei picked up. " Master you know about nature affinity right?" Naruto gave a short nod of the head " Yeah that's what determines a ninja chakra type and what kind of jutsu is easiest to learn based on it's element, what about it?"

" With most people, they have only one affinity that they are strong with, for example your sensei Zabuza is geared toward the water element. It is unusual for anyone to have more than one element that they can control and balance easily." Tei said, " A normal body would never be able to handle as many elements as you can. We act as limiters for your power master, if we were not here, your powers would go wild and your control would essentially be nonexistent."

Mashimizu continued "every little emotion you felt would cause your powers to flare up and you would likely not last ten minutes in that state. We make sure your powers are held back till they are needed and are not harmful to you while you use them."

Naruto thought this was as good an excuse as any but he still had one question on his mind "ok I get that well enough but can you explain why there's a giant cage in my head?"

Reikou just started to snicker wildly " It is easier if you see for yourself master, just don't get too close to the bars! Heheh!" Giving the crazy power a suspicious look Naruto started to walk toward the cage. As he got closer to it he felt an ominous feeling of dread pass over him.

Suddenly a giant set of claws jutted from the cage and if they had been five feet closer Naruto would have lost his head. Naruto however just stood still as the claws receded back into the cage and a pair of demonic glowing eyes glared at him.

" **Heheheh, what's wrong child, scared you so much you can't move? Hahaha!"** Naruto shrugged and replied, "Not really, I'm pretty sure those guys would jump in if I was in any real danger" Naruto pointed over his shoulder at his doppelgangers. " So, care to tell me why is it exactly that I have a giant woodland animal in my mind?"

The whole room shook as a growl emanated from the cage. **" Child, if this damnable seal wasn't keeping me in here you would be the first thing I kill." **Naruto however smirked "and yet you're stuck behind a cage with the doors kept shut by a piece of paper"

Once again the giant fox growled, **"You should know your place child, your talking to the most powerful of all Bijuu and the lord of hell, I am the Kyuubi no Kitsune" **Naruto stared at the giant fox "Hold it, I may not have always paid attention in history class, but even I know the Yondaime kicked your furry ass into the grave. How could you be here?"

The kyuubi began to chuckle in an almost amused tone **" You humans think so highly of yourselves even when face to face with something far beyond your comprehension. No human, no matter how powerful could ever kill a being like me. So instead of fighting me that damn human sealed me away. I would actually be impressed by his creativity if I weren't so pissed at what he did to me. " **

Naruto was surprised at the fox's words _'well that's certainly different then what we learned back in the village. Wait, he said he was sealed and since he is in my mind that means…"_ Naruto's face turned to a frown " I'm the one you're sealed into, you're the reason I was hated and attacked in my village aren't you?"

The Kyuubi just grinned and replied **" For such a young human you're certainly much more perceptive than one would think. Yes, your pathetic village seems to believe that you're me or close to that and thus attack you. Such sad little vermin trying to live some silly dream of revenge…" **The fox stopped talking when he heard Naruto start to snicker, then it turned into a full blown laugh **" What is it child, cant handle the shock that your precious village has been keeping this from you?"**

Naruto shook his head as he calmed himself and said "No I just think it's funny that they could mistake me for a oversized throw rug like you."

Once again the room shook though this time it was caused by kyuubi striking the cage with it's nine tails and roaring making it feel like an earthquake compared to the last one **"I swear you little whelp, when I get out of this fucking cage and get MY powers back your going to see why they called me a demon!!!!" **

"Hold it, your power? You mean my bloodline is your power?" Naruto said in a surprised tone "how can I use your powers if they belong to you?" Kyuubi seemed particularly pissed as he explained, **" The seal separated my powers from me, and they require a physical form to sustain them. For whatever reason they seem to have chosen you to command them." **Kyuubi explained then taking on a tone of contemplation **"And being in you has even given them something close to physical bodies themselves."**

Then Kyuubi turned it's attention back to Naruto **" I will admit this child, it's impressive you show no fear, but your still as weak as a flea in terms of power." **The Kyuubi's grin widened as Naruto's eye twitched at being compared to a flea **"In fact, I bet you wouldn't last a second against the weakest of my kind" **Naruto had been ignoring the fox however as a thought passed through his head.

'_I remember hearing that the fox had more power than anything the village had seen before, and that it's chakra was so strong it destroyed parts of the forest with it alone. Even with the seal draining his powers into me he must have a lot of chakra left in him' _Naruto thought, "Well then you stupid fox why don't you help me get stronger!" Naruto yelled, " I had to put up with my villages anger at you everyday before I left and you owe me big time for that!" this of course made the fox give a intrigued/ angry look " So your going to pay off that and give me as much of your chakra as I want, whenever I want!"

The fox's response was anything but one would expect after a human just demanded something from it, it started to laugh. **"Hahaha! Your something else I'll give that little human. Very well, you amuse me so I will lend you my chakra. Besides if you die, I die and I don't want to see that shinigami again anytime soon"**

"What do you know, even the mighty demon Kyuubi is afraid of something" Naruto teased **" Don't push your luck human" **Kyuubi replied as it retreated back into the darkness of the cage. Naruto turned around smiled.

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End flashback

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After he had woken up, he had told Zabuza and Haku what he had found in his mind, both were surprised but Zabuza had seen this as a unique opportunity. A child holding demon powers would be a strong tool indeed. Thus Naruto had experienced a whole level of training all the while having the fox taunt him as he was doing now. But for Naruto, now was not the time to bother him.

' _Listen fox, why don't you just get Kaji and Tei to fight again instead of bothering me?' _Naruto asked in an annoyed tone. **" No, that's too easy, besides you're a much better distraction than those one emotion wonders in here" **Kyuubi replied almost mockingly. "Damn fox" Naruto muttered as he reached the last stair. Hearing movement in the wind, Naruto stared up at a tree in front of him. On a branch stood Zabuza, his sword in hand, a pleased look on his bandaged face. And on the branch below him sat Haku with her mist hunter-nin mask covering her face, but even then Naruto could tell she was happy he was back. Naruto's thoughts drifted to the years past since he had begun his training.

The last two and a half years had been hell for Naruto, especially early on when he had dodging and avoidance training with Haku. It was closer to a dangerous combination of hide and seek put together with tag than actually training. The major differences between those games and his training was he wore a lot of weights as he tried to dodge Haku's senbon attacks, lets just say she aimed low.

Taijutsu with Haku wasn't much better. She seemed to take great pleasure in beating Naruto senseless seeing as how much weight he had limited how much he could move. On the plus side Naruto's body slowly began to learn to act on instinct and reflex, and he did actually learn the basics of fighting despite the injuries incurred. Naruto was grateful Zabuza had decided to have Haku teach him some basic medical jutsu so he could take care of himself and not have to keep going back to him after each lesson.

Things really didn't improve when Haku found Naruto reading his little orange book one night, that was a problem in itself. Naruto learned an important fact about women that day; don't give them more of a reason to be pissed at you. After that, Haku seemed even more hell bent on making Naruto's training the most hazardous thing to a male. Not a month after that incident however, Naruto finally proved to Haku that he was not anything like she thought he was.

They had stopped at a town famous for it's hot springs and high-class hotels after collecting a particularly good bounty a day before. After Haku had threatened Naruto with pain beyond belief if he peeked she went to enjoy a hot bath. Naruto was not the least bit interested in a bath at the moment so he decided to walk round town till Zabuza came to get him. However, at that moment he heard giggling coming from the wall outside the women spring.

When Naruto went to investigate he saw a man peeking through a hole in the wall. Now Naruto may read Icha Icha Paradise, but he knew to treat women with respect. Naruto gave the man no rest in the beating that followed all the while screaming words like "PERVERT!" and "LETCH!" After Naruto finished by throwing the man into the street it became apparent that the women in the baths had heard his shouts of rage as they were now fully dressed and holding various objects in their hands to inflict bodily pain upon the peeping tom.

Needless to say Haku thanked Naruto for helping them dispense their deserved justice upon the poor bastard. After that, training with Haku was much safer and she even, although grudgingly, put up with his choice of reading material. True to what Zabuza had predicted they became close friends, Haku even started calling him by 'Naruto-kun', which for a reason beyond Naruto's comprehension made Zabuza smile.

They had become even closer friends as they found their lives were quiet alike. Despite Naruto never having known his parent's, he related to Haku's pain of not knowing why people hated them and discovering why. Thanks to this their friendship grew quickly, once Haku had given him the chance of course.

Zabuza had been much easier to deal with compared with Haku in the long run. He was however a slave driver when it came to training and expected results. If Naruto did something wrong even once, Zabuza had him staying up all night working on it with no dinner only to have a double workload the next day.

True to his words Naruto never saw his sword again for a good six months. Instead, Zabuza gave him the most insane work out schedule known in the shinobi world. From dodging water jutsu's while studying a scroll to being attacked in the mornings while he slept, almost getting impaled by Zabuza and his giant sword. Zabuza had him doing it all and there were times when Naruto did question if he would be able to survive

Of course Zabuza was there to properly motivate him if need be, namely insinuating that someone so short and weak could never become hokage. This, of course, pushed Naruto just to prove Zabuza wrong. Zabuza used Naruto's anger like a well-made blade, always pushing him past his physical and mental limits to further his training.

It was thanks to this training style of that Naruto was actually able to make regular bushin clones. Haku helped Naruto learn to slowly and carefully release just enough chakra to create them successfully. Though he doubted he would ever actually use them since he knew the much stronger versions, Naruto felt pride in being able to accomplish something hard for him but easy for everyone else.

Finally, after the six months had passed Zabuza allowed Naruto to begin learning the way of the sword. Despite being a master of the silent killing style Zabuza had practiced a few other styles in case he needed them. Zabuza decided that the best style to teach Naruto was the Zensoku-ryu sword technique. It was a mixed offensive/defensive sword style relying heavily on the speed and creativity of the one using it. Of course Naruto had creativity in spades, and thanks to all the weights Zabuza had unloaded on him his speed wasn't a problem.

In addition to his training with Haku and Zabuza, Naruto had learned quiet a bit from what he had taken from the village. He had breezed through academy learning material, seeing as Zabuza had to teach him those basics anyway, and managed to learn a few ninjutsu and taijutsu techniques from the scrolls he took and Zabuza taught him a few from his personal collection.

Naruto had become curious as to why Zabuza would teach him so much and when he asked Zabuza merely replied "My tools need to be stronger than anyone else's, that include those I lead, I make you stronger, you serve me better." Naruto chuckled a little at the thought, that was how Zabuza rationalized everything.

"Oi, Naruto did you finish the job?" Zabuza asked as Haku and him jumped from the tree to in front of him " No Zabuza-sensei, I just spent the last few hours making a bonfire that can be seen all the way in Suna, what do you think?" Naruto half deadpanned, half retorted as he tossed the head I his hand to Zabuza who caught it in mid air. Zabuza ignored the remark and stared at the head in his hand for a minute " Very good Naruto, clean cut through the neck. Good work as usual". Naruto humphed as if insulted before replying " I better be after all the training you put me through."

Zabuza shook his head in an amused manner" Fine, lets just get this head back to the village, they're waiting for us." The three began the trek back to the village, Zabuza in front and Haku and Naruto side by side behind him. In a quiet voice Naruto whispered "Hey Haku-chan" "Yes Naruto-kun?" She whispered back "Ten to one says they welcome us back with a party and Zabuza-sensei gets wasted like usual" He finished with a masked smirk causing Haku to giggle quietly"

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"See, what did I say?" Naruto laughed as Haku and himself watched the festivities from one of the many tables set outside. The entire village square had been turned into a party area complete with music and food to celebrate the death of the murder that had plagued their village for a month's time. It seemed the whole village had turned out to welcome them back and had gone all out to thank them. What was so amusing to Naruto and Haku was at the moment Zabuza had three large jugs of sake in his hands and though clearly intoxicated was dancing surprisingly well with three ladies of the village at the same time." You know, it seems that whenever he gets like this Zabuza-sensei can win over any women he wants" Naruto said as he grabbed a bowl of rice and fried steak from in front of him.

" I wonder what they see in him" Naruto joked slightly as he grabbed the rim of his mask with his index finger and pulled it down to round his neck to enjoy his food. Naruto was oblivious to the stares he got from many girls his age as he removed his mask and ate his food. Not once since the trio had taken the job had Naruto removed his mask in public view of the female village population, now that he had the girls sitting at the table could plainly see his face, and they were impressed. The girls at the table slowly started to inch closer. But one look from Haku sent them right back o their seats. As she scooted closer to Naruto she gave a glare that would have frozen hell over in seconds to any other girl that came close.

"Ne, Haku-chan what's wrong?" Naruto asked as she was now practically rubbing shoulders with him. "Oh, nothing Naruto-kun." She replied sweetly. Naruto stared at her for a minute with a raised eyebrow, then shrugging his shoulders he went back to his meal. _"I wonder why Haku-chan is acting so strange…eh, whatever it is doesn't concern me, "_ Naruto thought as he chewed the food in his mouth.

Naruto turned his attention back to Zabuza who had apparently passed out at one of the tables nearby, a sake jug held tightly in his hands. Sighing to himself Naruto finished his food and set the empty cup down. " Haku-chan, looks like Zabuza-sensei finally had enough to drink, lets get him in bed, then we can finish enjoying the party." Haku nodded in agreement and got up to help Naruto carry Zabuza into a nearby hotel they were staying at for the night. Lifting him up, it took both of them on opposite sides to carry the heavily intoxicated man " Kami, Zabuza-sensei seems to gain like twenty pounds when he drinks this much, eh Haku-chan?"

" Now Naruto-kun, you know it's not nice to make fun of Zabuza-sama when he's like this" Haku replied as they dragged Zabuza from the party into his room " That doesn't make it any less true" Naruto countered as they tossed him onto his bed "there now he can sleep off those last few drinks, meanwhile I want another bowl of rice" Naruto said as Haku pulled the covers of the bed over Zabuza, the jug still grasped firmly in his hand. Quietly they slipped out of the room and returned to the festival, enjoying it long into the night.

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" Ugh oh kami, my head feels like I just went ten rounds with Kisame without my sword. What happened?" Zabuza said as he woke up." You drank enough alcohol to put a whale under Zabuza-sensei. And it's about damn time you woke up too, it's almost past noon." Zabuza turned his head and saw Naruto sitting on the edge of the window smiling, his mask round his neck and a half eaten apple in his hands. " You were taking so long to get up Haku-chan decided to go stock up on medicine at the market while I played wake up call for you." Naruto grinned taking a bite out of the apple.

Zabuza moaned in pain " Naruto, it's too early to tease me about this" Naruto raised an eyebrow, got up and started walking to the door "what part of almost noon don't you understand?" Naruto said opening the door "Now get up, we got to leave before that women who came in here when we left and spent the night with you comes back with the news you're a outo-san."

Zabuza bolted up right wide eyed " What!?" Naruto poked his head in from outside the room and laughed " I'm joking sensei" Naruto shut the door just in time to avoid getting hit by a vase that had previously been sitting on a table by Zabuza's bed "Damn brat will be the death of me" Zabuza muttered to himself as he heard Naruto's laughter disappear in the hallway.

Pulling himself from the bed, Zabuza slowly walked over to the window Naruto had just seconds ago had been sitting on. He stared out to the village below as the bright sun lit up the blue sky above. Zabuza stared at a group of children as they 'ambushed' Naruto as he came out of the hotel. Of course Naruto had knew they were there, Zabuza had trained him too well to not know, but he had let them jump as he seemed to have become the local hero and idol for the children and didn't mind the attention of the youngsters one bit. Zabuza snickered a little as Naruto was being pulled by both his hands by the children who wanted to play games with him and hear the story of how he had saved them for the sixth time that morning.

'_Naruto' _Zabuza thought to himself as he watched Naruto entertained the children with the story once more across the street, even letting them see his unsheathed blade in all it's glory _' You have grown truly strong for me, your dedication has been unquestionable, your loyalty unbreakable.'_ Zabuza watched in amusement as Naruto was tackled by the children into the street and as the children climbed all over him Zabuza saw out of the corner of his eye Haku walk up to them laughing all the while at Naruto's predicament as she carried a grocery bag in her hands.

Zabuza's head filled with thoughts of all they had been through, from their missions together to the time in between. He thought of how Naruto had caught his first bounty alone and dragged the target all they way to the client by the hair because he had commented on his height to how Haku had grown closer to him as time went on. Zabuza shook his head at this, despite how much he had trained Haku to be a killer and a tool; she was still a girl at heart and obviously cared for Naruto more than just a comrade or friend, not that she would admit it or Naruto knew.

'_You are so dedicated in everything you do, I'm amazed I found such a good tool…no, I am amazed I found such a good student,' _Zabuza corrected himself with a smile. Then the smile fled his face as an unreadable expression entered and as he turned away from the window and faced the darkness of the room he whispered quietly into the shadows "Yes, I believe it is time"

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"Zabuza-sensei, what is our next mission?" Naruto asked after they left the village as the sun began to set, lighting the sky up in bright red hues and pink clouds. " Haku and myself will be traveling to a nearby village to find a new bounty to take" Zabuza replied as they reached a fork in the road. "And me?" Naruto asked seeing as it was not the first time they had separate missions. Zabuza turned to face Naruto " that is for you to decide Naruto, this is where we go our separate ways."

Silence hung in the air, the only sound coming from the leaves in the wind. Despite that his mask was on Zabuza could tell Naruto was in shock, and not just him. Haku's eyes were wide open, Zabuza hadn't told her of this since his decision only hours earlier and the news was hard hitting, she was going to lose her only friend who shared so much in common with her. "Zabuza-sensei, you're joking right?" Naruto asked quietly, hoping it wasn't true. Zabuza only shook his head in response.

"Naruto, you have learned so much since we met, you have exceeded my expectations of you time and again." Zabuza replied " but now you must walk your own path and follow where it leads you". " But Zabuza-sensei what about my promise?" Naruto asked

" Naruto, your promise was that you would help me reach my goals as long as I had anything to teach you, and you have kept your promise. I have nothing to teach you in that kinjutsu style, all that you need to do is practice what I have taught you" Zabuza said with a smile "remember, I expect you to have improved with your sword skills if and when we run into each other again or I'll run you into the ground with the basics ten times over. It'd be a fucking waste if you slacked off in your kenjutsu and battōjutsu lessons that I taught you" Zabuza said as he shifted his swords weight. Even with his bandaged face Naruto Haku could see him smiling proudly at him before he turned to face the path leading to the right.

" Haku" Zabuza said gaining her attention " catch up with me when your done saying goodbye" and with that he started to walk away. He knew she need to do this herself, otherwise it was going to catch up with her later and then she would feel a hundred times worse than before.

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Naruto and Haku watched as Zabuza walked away "well " Naruto said as he turned his head toward Haku "This really sucks huh?" Haku allowed a small giggle before a sad smile took over her face. Naruto knew what she was going through, but he also knew she was most likely taking it much harder than he was. He tried to think of something that would cheer her up even a little, and then he got an idea.

"Hey Haku-chan, you know what the hokage of my village once told me about friends?" Naruto asked " no, what did he say Naruto-kun?" Haku asked half heartedly, still depressed from the news. Naruto put a hand on her shoulder " He once told me that even if friends are miles apart for years their hearts are side by side forever" Naruto finished with a very Kakashi like smile. Haku gave a slightly happier smile in return " Yeah your right, it sounds like your hokage is a really nice and know what he's talking about Naruto-kun". Naruto laughed a little " well he's like a grandfather to me and he's had a lot of experience in these things"

" Naruto-kun you're my only friend besides Zabuza-sama, It's not that your leaving that I'm upset about I knew that would happen eventually. It's that it's happening so suddenly that is getting to me." Haku said as she kicked a rock. " Just remember Haku-chan, I'm your friend and nothing is going to change that" Naruto replied making Haku giggle a little more as she pulled something out of one of her ninja packs. " That's just like you Naruto-kun, always thinking positive. Here this is for you" Haku said as she handed him a very familiar looking orange book. Taking a closer look at it Naruto found it to be the second book in the series known as Icha Icha Paradise.

Naruto raised an eyebrow and chuckled a little " why Haku-chan I never knew, calling me a pervert when you had this all along" Naruto suddenly had a close experience with the ground thanks to a now red faced Haku hitting him in the head " BAKA!" Haku shouted, "It's not mine! Zabuza-sama and I bought it for your birthday!"

Pulling his face from the ground Naruto asked " my birthday?" Naruto thought to himself before laughing as he pulled himself up from the ground " oh yeah, I forgot my birthday is today. I've been so caught up in training that it slipped my mind". Haku shook her head with a smile " It was supposed to be your birthday gift, but now I guess it's your going away gift instead."

"Yeah I guess it is" Naruto replied as he stared at the books cover" Just remember one thing Naruto-kun" Haku said as she turned around and faced the road " what's that Haku-chan?" Naruto asked

Turning her head over her shoulder with a smile" If you forget about us I'll make sure you regret it". With that said Haku ran off down the road after Zabuza. Naruto watched as Haku caught up to Zabuza and stayed in place until they disappeared into a forest in the horizon. " Well," Naruto said to himself opening his new book "happy birthday to me" and with that he started walking the opposing path toward whatever adventures waited his arrival.

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Well folks that's the chapter and now for the translations of terms in Japanese

Asami- Japanese name meaning morning beauty

Hime- princess

Nashi- a type of Japanese fruit related to the pear.

Gokai Kiru – an OC I made both words in his name are associated with murder

Dozuki saw- type of Japanese saw

Nagamaki- Chinese sword

Shinigami- death god

Zensoku-ryu- full speed style

outo-san- Father

Important bloodline information

Butai Ketsueki – literally Element blood

Kusaki- plants

Kaji- fire

Mashimizu- clear water

Daichi- earth

Reikou- lightning

Tei-air

If you need a picture of Gokai Kiru think of Gohei Himura from Rurouni Kenshin and you'll get what he looks like.

I know someone is going to ask why Haku acted the way she did at the end of the chapter round Naruto, well tough luck **s**nickers I have plans further down the road concerning this and I don't plan on spoiling it !!! Yes, this is still a Naru/Hina fic, that doesn't mean my story is set in stone though so now I have a few idea's in my head for the future of this fic and I just needed to set this up in case I decide to act on thm.

Keep s lookout for the next chapter and remember,

Write a review of what you think so I can give you a better story!


	5. Battle in the storm of sand and blood!

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto if I did naruto wouldn't be as dumb, there would be a lot more blood, and he and hinata would b

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto if I did naruto wouldn't be as dumb, there would be a lot more blood, and he and hinata would be together from day one. I also don't own any anime crossover elements I add in my story. I do however own any techniques and/or ideas I come up with in my story where noted.

Ok here's the next chapter everyone!! Honestly I wanted to get this out like three months ago but what with school, my comp being hacked and my ex who wouldn't leave me alone I couldn't find the time to write this as much as I had hoped to. A few characters gave me trouble but I pulled through and now it's done. Read and send a review of what you think!

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" Man I needed this!" Naruto exclaimed tossing a dumpling into his mouth. Six months after separating from Haku and Zabuza he had made his way out of the land of waves by boat after several successful bounty hunts and missions he had completed. Naruto had avoided the land of lightning and stone seeing as he thought they wouldn't be too accommodating to a traveler like him, so instead he had taken a boat to the land of waterfall, after spending a few months there he made his way through the land of grass, briefly stopping to get cash and local Jutsu as best he could before making his way through the land of rain which he fallowed all the way to the ocean.

The trip had put him in a small shore town on the coast of Suna. His first stop after getting off the boat was to find a place to eat. He quickly found the best restaurant in the town and was enjoying some of the local flavors. " Hey! Another order of the Yakiniku and miso soup over here! And keep the tea and dumplings coming!" Naruto shouted to the cook who nodded and yelled " coming right up!" quickly making the food for the soon to be ten-year-old boy with a large wallet.

Naruto smiled and let his mind wander as he waited, his hand holding a trinket round his neck he bought in the land of grass, a whistle in the shape of a leaf. Naruto bought it out of curiosity at first, but soon found he liked the soft quiet music he could make with it. His thoughts were interrupted as the chef yelled "Order up!"

Naruto smirked a little as his food was delivered to him ' the service here is great' Naruto thought before an unreadable expression came to his face 'too bad my village cant be more accommodating'. Not one to let bad thoughts get in the way of a good time Naruto started eating his meal. Halfway through however… "You bastards!" Naruto looked up from his food and sighed as he put his chopsticks down, pulling his mask up over his nose. " I'll be right back, just got to take care of something," Naruto said to the waiter as he picked his sword up from beside his chair.

Walking outside Naruto worked his way to the front of the gathering crowd as an old man shouted at a group of five thugs Naruto knew were a dime a dozen. He heard whispers among the crowd behind him about the thugs " those guys work for Yoku Akogi, that rich land baron who's been buying up land left and right" one man whispered " I hear people who don't give him their land have a habit of disappearing, even the police are afraid to do anything against him" another whispered back.

" How many times do I have to tell that rat faced boss of yours till he gets it into his scrawny little head, my land is not for sale!" all the thugs did in return was start to laugh like crazy. " Listen you old shit I don't think you understand the situation" one of the thugs said, " what the boss wants the boss gets and those that get in his way…" the thug said as he reached into his shirt suddenly throwing a knife "DIE!!"

Naruto jumped in front of the old man and swung his sheathed sword upwards, knocking the knife into the air until it fell in front of the thugs, imbedding itself in the ground. " Well now, that doesn't sound very friendly…" Naruto said turning his head to the hired goons " I may not know what's going on but I'm not going to let you kill an old man in broad daylight and get away with it". "You little punk!" one of the thugs shouted, " This is none of your business!" Naruto ignored the little comment and gave them a lazy look "your out here picking a fight with an old man and disturbed my lunch, I think it's my business now"

Naruto looked over his shoulder to the old man " hey, old man, how bout I do you a favor and get rid of these guys for you?" The old man looked at Naruto " kid, if you do that I'll pay for that meal they interrupted". Naruto smiled under his mask " Really? Well this day is getting better and better, I get some exercise and a free meal" Naruto turned his attention back to the thugs in front of him " though I don't think these oxen will be much of a challenge, by the way they look it wont take too long"

Naruto closed his eyes in thought missing the irritated looks on the faces of his opponents, raising one finger at a time on his right hand as if counting, and after a few seconds opened his eyes as he came to a decision " I'd say three minutes is about the most they'll last against me."

" YOU BRAT!!" the men shouted as they charged Naruto who only stood his ground "aw looks like I offended them" Naruto said to himself in a light tone as the two largest hired goons in front of him were about to hit him. Naruto jumped back as their fists neared him, then grabbing their arms tightly in his hand. Naruto smirked as he gave them a shock thanks to his bloodline making the two brutes yell out in surprise till he let go and they dropped to the ground, some smoke coming from their cloths.

Everyone, the three remaining thugs included, stared in shock as a child brought down two full grown men with ease " well that was less than I expected" Naruto said as he stepped over the two incapacitated thugs as they unconsciously twitched on the ground " I hope you three will be more of a challenge" Naruto raised his hand with a masked smile to show the blue and white sparks that danced along his gloved arm and fingers " I would hate to look like a bully".

Two of the remaining hired goons were having second thoughts about fighting the child in front of them. One however didn't seem to notice the danger as he reached under his shirt " why you…" but he froze as he felt something against his back "this is good as a brawl, no one has been hurt to badly yet. But if you are going to pull a concealed blade then I will stop holding back" the two thugs next to him jumped back when they realized there was another kid like the one in front of them, the hilt of his blade jabbed in back of the overconfident brute " pick up your friends and go home"

Naruto watched as the three goons dragged their fallen comrades away and the shadow clone disappeared in a cloud of smoke. Naruto sighed and muttered quietly to himself " one minute and twenty five seconds, what a boring fight." **" Then why did you waste your time with those overgrown apes in the first place?" **The Kyuubi asked in a voice of intrigued boredom _' because I saw an opportunity' _Naruto replied as he turned back to the old man with a smile " mission accomplished"

--

"Seriously old man this is fine, I mean those goons weren't worth a whole meal anyway" Naruto said as he devoured his sixteenth plate of dumplings. Naruto returned to the restaurant shortly after sending off the unwelcome interruption, and the old man true to his word had fallowed him to pay the bill only for Naruto to try to convince him that he didn't need to. The old man however was proving to be as stubborn as Naruto was so they compromised that he would only pay for half of it. Of course that didn't stop the old man from offering to pay for it all throughout the meal.

" Well I just want to make sure I show my appreciation for what you did for me back there, that damn Akogi has got everyone so scared they wont help anyone else but themselves" the old man smiled as he watched Naruto " so Naruto was it? Your really not from around here are you?" Naruto shook his head and smiled as he chewed " like I said before, I'm traveling and wanted to have lunch before leaving town."

" _Lunch?"_ the old man thought as the dishes on the table in front of him slowly grew higher _"I haven't seen parties serve this much food". _While he was distracted Naruto began to try to get a better picture of the old man next to him _" hmm… lets see he's wearing cloths and glasses meant for work outside and his hands are covered in dirt and dust, he was willing to pay for my meal meaning he has a job or some other source of income to support himself. He walks well considering his age so he must exercise to keep in shape…"_

" Hey old man, you work on that land you own?" Naruto said making the man look at Naruto as if he had grown a second head " how did you know that?" Naruto smirked a little and replied, " In my occupation it pays to be observant, it also pays to know how to fight like I did earlier" Naruto noticed a glint in the old mans eye " well then how would you like to make some money before you leave?" Naruto raised an eye at this " I want to hire you as a body guard for me and my land for a few days till I'm sure that bastard Yoku cant try anything"

" _Hmm… I don't really need to. But I can make up what my meal cost and maybe a little extra for later" _Naruto thought to himself. _"Besides I want to see what made those guys determined enough to get his land that they would kill him openly in public like that" _

" I like to know the name of the person I'm working for" Naruto said as he chewed his remaining dumpling. Smiling in return the old man simply replied, "My name is Noujou Tokunouka"

--

"Hey Tokunouka –san, we've been walking through this Kami forsaken desert for two hours, where the hell is your place?!" Naruto said in an annoyed tone as he fallowed the old man through the endless sand and dirt while carrying all of his stuff. At first Naruto was glade to accept the old mans offer as a temporary bodyguard and to make sure an incident like before didn't happen again.

They had worked it out to be classed as a flexible B rank mission which could be upgraded to an A rank as the likelihood of combat was relatively high and Noujou didn't know if Akogi had hired anyone stronger than his opponents earlier. But as time dragged on and they traveled further into the desert Naruto began to believe either the old man was lost or was suffering from the heat of the desert air.

" Relax" Noujou said as he kept walking forward " my land is right over the next hill" sure enough as soon as they walked over the next hill, there in the middle of nowhere was what looked like a farm surrounded by trees and grass. If Naruto didn't know better he would have thought it was a mirage, a forest in the middle of the desert isn't something you see everyday.

Even at this distance Naruto could see there were crops growing in fields and a small pond nearby. By all accounts it was a haven from the land around it, an oasis in the heart of the desert. As they got closer Naruto could see why the men earlier had tried so hard to force the old man to give it up. It was so green and full of life that it reminded him of the forests back in his village. In the center of the land was a two-story house built beside the lake and a large crop field. On the other side was one of the largest tree's Naruto had seen in a long time, grass grew from the ground in abundance on the property "wow…" Naruto said in a quiet voice barely able to express his amazement to which Noujou chuckled "yes it is amazing isn't it? "

Naruto looked around at the trees before he walked up to one of the trees and put his hand against it, he could feel a sense of calm and warmth from the land and unknowingly a masked smile overtook his face. " Hey old man this is incredible it's so calm and serene here, I can tell you take great care of this place"

Noujou adjusted his glasses a little out of embarrassment of the complement " well now you know why Akogi is so determined to get my land from me, my lands value has skyrocketed over the years and so has how much I own" Noujou looked over his land with a smile " Its grown to about a little over three hundred meters so like it or not that's what I got" Naruto stared at Tokunouka as he seemed lost in memories "you'd never guess this place grew out of the desert"

" What do you mean?" Naruto asked genuinely interested as Noujou started walking toward the house in the center of the life filled land. Noujou looked over his shoulder as he walked " well about forty years ago after I retired from my last job I passed through this stretch of land and at first I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me" Noujou walked over to the tree next to the house which easily overshadowed the house in height.

If he had to guess Naruto would put the tree at three to four stories over the roof of the house " Back then this tree was nothing but a tiny sprout, making it grow this large and watching as the land grew as I breathed and nurtured this green place out of the sand and dust… nothing compares to describe how far I have come"

" You've really put your heart and soul into this place haven't you" Naruto asked to which Noujou nodded in return " I had to give up a lot of important things to get this land the way it is. To come this far from nothing, there's no way I can just leave it behind after all this land is my life and my dream so please protect it as best you can."

Naruto pointed to the house " well why don't we discuss this over some tea, I need to know some more about this Yoku Akogi" Noujou nodded and Naruto fallowed into his house.

--

" Ok now tell me everything, start at the beginning and leave nothing out. If you do it could endanger you and myself later" Naruto said in a serious tone making sure the old man understood the situation. Nodding his head as he finished pouring the dinks and set the pitcher down on the table between them, Noujou took a sip of his drink before he began to explain the situation.

" That bastard Akogi has been after my land for some time, him and his goons are always coming around with insane offers and petty threats trying to force me to sign it over to him. He's tried every dirty tactic in the book from trying to get my land foreclosed so it will be sold off to having his hired hands come here and wreck my farm tools so I cant do my job" Noujou smiled at this " but no matter what he's done to try to ruin me I always manage to pull through" Naruto chuckled a little.

" So besides its value what would he want with your land?" Naruto asked as he looked out the window beside him to the lake. Noujou scowled a little " Akogi is like a child who wants a priceless new toy to play with till he breaks it, once he has it he will either forget it and let everything die or will use all it has till there's nothing left and move on" " and what's this about other places being taken by him?" Naruto asked.

" A lot of locals were talking about it earlier". If anything Noujou scowled even more " besides me a lot of locals were approached to sell their land to Akogi, a few accepted and sold to him, but when their payment came it was reduced to a enough coins you could hold it in one hand" Noujou snorted " turns out he scammed them with big words and tight pockets. When he said planned payments he meant pay you a coin a month."

Then anger overtook his face "And then there were those like me who refused to sell, this land of ours that we worked so hard to get, we couldn't give it to anyone especially to him after we heard what he had done to the others. Then he started harassing us and hiring the extra muscle and after that didn't work…" Noujou trailed off as he looked into his cup " some of us started to disappear" Naruto watched the old man carefully, taking in every detail he spoke " at first I couldn't think of a reason why but I knew something was going on in the shadows of this desert and it somehow involved Akogi, It couldn't be a coincidence that my friends and neighbors were gone in the night and the next day Akogi bought the land cheap."

" I decided to look around the last land Akogi bought before he got there to level the house. When I got inside… I found nothing." Naruto gave him a questionable look "I mean I found nothing! There was no indication they had been ready to leave! Their clothes were still in house, they left the family items behind, hell they had dinner still laid out on the table! And then I found this" Noujou reached into his pocket and pulled out a small gold watch on a chain.

He placed it in front of Naruto noticed it seemed to be broken, as if crushed and picked it up and opened it; inside the lid the watch was broken. The glass covering the hands and gears was cracked, some sand from the desert had gotten into the gears, and Naruto could see dried blood on the inside of the lid covering a picture of a man and a women who he assumed were the previous owners

" Damn it!" Noujou shouted as he banged his hand on the table " I knew that bastard was behind it! He was picking us off one by one somehow and now I'm the last one" _' so that's what happened' _Naruto thought darkly _' Akogi got tired of them refusing his offers and decided to handle it his way'. _Noujou suddenly became very quiet " I know I'm asking a lot of you, but please protect my land. It's all I have left in this world to remember those who are gone now. "Old man" Naruto said gaining his attention " I promise will protect your land or die trying and my nindo wont let me break a promise I make" Naruto smiled " now what can we do to pass the time old man?" Noujou laughed harder than he had in a long time.

--

" Hey old man do you need anymore of these seeds?" Naruto asked as he carried a bag with both hands to Noujou, as he finished plowing one of the unused fields near the lake " no I think we have enough, now all we need to do is cover the seeds we put down and water them" Noujou said as he wiped sweat from his face with a napkin.

" I'll take care of it" Naruto said putting down the bag and walking over to the side of the field. Getting down on a knee Naruto made a hand sign before putting his hand against the dirt. Noujou watched as the ground moved, slowly it filled in the ditches covering the seeds within. " I've seen a lot in my life but you keep surprising me" Noujou smiled as Naruto looked at the lake then to Noujou "well I guess I'll water them and help them grow while I'm at it" Naruto focused his chakra toward the lake with another hand sign from which a pillar of water exploded and rained down on the field. Naruto looked over the soaked field before jamming the fingers on his right hand into the soft mud. Noujou stared in awe as the newly planted seeds started to sprout and grow.

" Well how's that old man?" Naruto asked as he wiped his hands clean " I think you just completed my work for the next three months" Noujou joked as he stared at the full grown crops to which Naruto sheepishly rubbed the back of his head " well now you have some time off huh?" Noujou smiled and nodded his head " yeah I guess after this is over I can take a vacation" Noujou said before a concerned look came to his face " but shouldn't someone be watching in case our unwelcome guest shows up?" Naruto smiled " I got a few shadow clones watching the perimeter, so if anyone gets close they'll destroy themselves so I'll know". Noujou shook his head in amusement as they started to walk back to the house " So since it is getting late" Noujou said looking at the sky " how bout we get dinner started, how does a stew sound?"

Naruto was about to answer when suddenly he stop moving as a shadow clone destroyed itself, sending Naruto it's information and making him look towards the house " looks like we have some company Tokunouka –san" Naruto in a serious tone.

--

Noujou and Naruto walked out the front door to find the same five thugs from before standing behind a man Naruto had never seen before. " Akogi, to what do I owe this blemish on an otherwise perfect day?" Noujou said in a restrained voice holding nothing but disdain. _' This is the rat faced bastard that's been causing all these problems?' _Naruto thought to himself, as he looked the guy over from behind Noujou. He wore what had to be the cheapest, expensive looking suit and tie in the desert and with his greased hair and two front teeth that over bit his lower lip It didn't take much imagination to make him look like a rat _' yeah I can see the resemblance' _Naruto thought to himself **" brat I cant believe I'm saying this but that piece of vermin is even more pathetic than you"** Kyuubi remarked makingNaruto smirk.

" I think we all know why I'm here Tokunouka, how much longer are you going to defy the inevitable?" Yoku asked, a snide smile on his face. " Until you get it into that scrawny little head of yours my land is not for sale!!" Noujou all but yelled

Akogi's smiled darkened " well then I'm afraid I will have to insist on my point" snapping his fingers the thugs started toward Tokunouka until they saw Naruto walk from behind Noujou. " Well I'm afraid I must insist that you leave now or I will be forced to remove you personally for trespassing on private property" Naruto said with a masked smile as he drew his blade making the now nervous thugs back up a bit.

" Just what the hell are you imbeciles doing?" Akogi asked as one of the thugs turned to him " sorry boss, but remember when we told you about what happened earlier…" Yoku stared at Naruto for a minute before turning to the goons with a frown " Your telling me you were beat by a child? Don't give me excuses when I'm the one who shells out your pay. Now give me the results I expect of you or I'll dump you in the deepest sand pit I can find" The goons turned hesitantly to Naruto know this would not turn out well.

--

5 minutes later

--

The butt of Naruto's sword connected with the chin of the last thugs still standing, making the already beaten man fall on his back to unconsciousness. He joined his fellow brutes on the ground as they groaned in agony and pain from their ass being handed to them by the same kid for second time in one day. Naruto sheathed his sword and stared Akogi " Now like I said before, leave or else". Akogi stared at Naruto a moment before he began to chuckle to himself as he clapped his hands " wonderful! An absolutely splendid performance!"

Naruto watched the man carefully, not wanting to be surprised by the unexpected " a child beating grown men in a fight while out numbered is something special indeed! I simply must have you work for me!" Akogi said in an almost happy voice " I can see now I have been wasting money on these fools, if you come work for me then I'll give you what I was paying them!" Akogi raised a hand in offering to Naruto " quite generous don't you think? All you have to do is say yes and I can draw up a contract."

" I'm afraid that would conflict with my contract with Tokunouka –san" Naruto said making Akogi laugh " What is this poor old fool paying you? I can double, no triple what ever it is, just name it after all everyone has a price" Naruto shook his head "Not me. To me it's not how much the client can pay, it's who the client is" Naruto glared at Akogi " and I don't work for scum like you. Your money is wasted here so I suggest you leave before I decide to stop playing nice" Akogi's mood completely flipped as a dark frown covered his face.

" Listen kid, I don't think you understand the situation, I will have this land and if you stand in my way like this old fool of a farmer then I wont spare you because you're a little brat" Suddenly a kunai flew past Akogi's cheek, leaving a shallow cut on his face " Then I suggest you choose who you hire wisely because next time I promise the crows will eat well if you don't" Naruto said leaking a small amount of killer intent solely on Akogi as the cut on his cheek started to bleed.

Despite loosing his cool from the feelings of terror Naruto was giving him Akogi paid little attention to Naruto's threat as he turned and started to walk away covering his cheek with his hand" when those over paid fools wake up tell them to get back to my office for a conversation in competence". When he was gone Naruto shook his head a little as he put the sword back in its sheath "what a waste of my time" Noujou Stared at Naruto for a moment " Say Naruto, I was wondering where a child like you gets a sword like that in the first place?" Naruto raised an eyebrow at the question and looked down at his weapon " I got it just before I started traveling, I've had it ever since, why?" Noujou shook his head " just wondering about something is all".

Naruto shrugged and stared at the unconscious men on the ground " So what you want me to do with them?" Naruto asked still displeased of their employer's utter lack of concern for hired hands. Noujou stared at them for a moment " drag them inside, I doubt they'll last long if they go back to Akogi anyway. He makes a habit of not letting weak links last too long". Naruto shrugged as he made a familiar hand seal and soon had ten shadow clones dragging the men into the house. _"Well now "_ Naruto thought to himself as he watched the clones work _" this will be an excellent chance to practice my interrogation skills" _Naruto chuckled lightly to himself as he walked into the house.

--

Naruto sighed as he walked out of the room he had moved the hired men into. He started wiping his hand on a towel as he joined Noujou in the kitchen "So why did you want to be alone with them when they woke up?" Noujou asked as he looked up from his paper on the table " I needed to see if they had any information on what Akogi might do next, so I decided to interrogate them" Naruto said as he help up a kunai knife " what'd you do to them?" Noujou asked in a suspicious tone to which Naruto smirked " nothing, I made a threat that involved their important pats and I showed them my knifes and they informed me of a few secrets quicker than I had expected. I never laid a finger on them, I'm actually kind of disappointed ".

Noujou chuckled a little " So they tell you anything good?" Naruto nodded " A few things of interest came up. For one it seem that Akogi has been visiting a lot of ninja out posts in this area, and that he has been meeting with many representatives of these outposts on a regular basis. Second, recently he shifted a sizable amount of money to a Suna account under several highly well known representatives. From this I can conclude that Akogi is trying to hire the best shinobi he can find for an assassination mission, and you will be the target".

Noujou stared at Naruto and sighed, " So what your saying is I should give him what he wants right?" to Noujou's surprise Naruto shook his head " what I'm saying is that I need you to do exactly what I say, when I say it. I never back down from a job after I take it, so I'm changing this to an A rank mission like we agreed," Naruto walked to the front door " where are you going?" Noujou asked to which Naruto replied as he walked out the door " to plan a defense."

--

Akogi was livid beyond anytime before in his life after he returned to his manor. First the hired muscle he had bought failed to get what he wanted, then they we beaten by a child who had bested them before, then said child had the nerve to insult him and attack him. But now standing in front of him was the answer to the thorn in his side. He had used them a lot recently and he was sure that this new development would be no problem to deal with. He grinned, as soon all he had work for would come full circle.

" I am trusting you to do as well as you have done in the past, I would hate for you to disappoint me after I continue to pay a very generous amount to your village for your services" Akogi said from behind his desk as he stared at the ninja's in front of him " don't worry I guarantee you this team can handle anything this child you described can do" a Jounin with most of his face covered in cloth said as he heard snickering behind him.

" This shrimp wont know what hit him, I even got some new parts for my toy I can use" a boy in a black suite and had purple paint designs on his face grinned as he flexed his fingers " I cant wait to try them out!".

The blond girl next to him scoffed and muttered to herself " this is a complete waste of our time and talent, it's bad enough we had to kill a bunch of old farmers, now he cant even deal with children" she glanced over her remaining teammate outside the room who was leaning against the wall, a boy with red hair and a gourd on his back, and thought to herself _' at least he doesn't need to be involved this time'_. Akogi turned his attention to the Jounin " you will carry it out tomorrow night on the full moon, I hear it will be cloudy and dark enough that you wont be seen, until then you are dismissed" the Jounin nodded and as soon as they left the office he turned to his team " Temari, Kankuro you will be the ones to attack this mission".

The two nodded " Hai, Baki-sensei" he looked at his remaining subordinate " there's no need for you to get involved Gaara, I'm sure they can handle it alone" the red head who had been leaning against the wall opened his eyes and walked past his team " it matters little" Gaara said in his whispered voice " mother has been displeased with the blood I've given her as of late, I wont give her any weak farmer blood anymore" Temari and Kankuro sighed in relief, even Baki let out the breath he had unknowingly been holding in, glad Gaara hadn't brought issue with his decision. When that happened it never turned out well for anyone.

Gaara stopped walking as he reached the doors leading outside "but if I decide to give mother the blood of the boy who we will face and you get in the way, then I will kill you" with that said he walked out of the house leaving behind three very unnerved Suna Ninja's.

"Baki-sensei, are we just going to let him leave again?" Temari asked as she watch her younger brother walk off. Baki sighed, " you know how he gets when he's like this, he'll come back soon enough, I just feel sorry to whoever he meets first".

--

Noujou watched in fascination as ten Naruto's were running through the house doing different things. Two were counting a rather large assortment of ninja tools and gear on the kitchen table. Another was watching the television in the living room watching the local news show about the weather the next few days. Three were reading scrolls that listed some jutsu's and a bingo book chapter of high ranked shinobi, one was bringing in a load of wood from the shed another seemed to be meditating outside under a tree, the last two were looking through some maps and books detailing the local area and it's surroundings.

" Hey which one of you is the real one?" Noujou asked gaining the attention of the clone that was watching the TV " none of us are, boss said he had to run to town and would be back before sundown". Noujou became stiff at this and started to panic " what! You mean he left?! What if the ninja's he was talking about show up!" the clone shook it head a little and turned it's attention back to the TV " they wont attack till night, and if their smart not until tomarrow."

The clone turned off the television" The weather says it'll be cloudy on the night of the full moon. Anyone less than a professional ninja wont be too much of a problem for us". Noujou sighed, " he seems very relaxed about this, doesn't it concern him that he could die?" The clone looked back at Noujou " boss would be stupid not to be concerned, but when a ninja takes a job they do their best to complete it no matter the cost, heh boss more than most"

Noujou shook his head and saw that the door where Naruto had held the thugs was open " hey where did those guys go?" Noujou asked in a surprised, slightly worried voice " Boss decided to take them to town and hand them to the authorities there, Akogi may scare the police, but his body guards wont now that they don't work for him anymore."

--

Naruto walked out of a store carrying a bag of supplies over his shoulder. He had bought them with the money he got for turning in Akogi's bodyguards. " Well now I think that's everything" Naruto said to himself as he started the trek back to the house, unaware he was being watched by a pair of green eyes as he walked down the street. _' Something doesn't feel right" _Naruto thought to himself as he stopped walking_" almost like…I understand now'_

Naruto turned down one of the alleys in the town, a street that stretched across three blocks of houses and shops, with plenty of room for him to defend himself in if necessary. As he reached the middle of the street he turned around " you can come out now" Naruto said lazily as he watched where he just came from. Shortly after he spoke those words the sand began to swirl on the ground, it formed up into a human shape before falling back to the ground to revel a boy about his age with his arms crossed and a gourd on his back.

"Well now," Naruto said with an amused tone " who might you be?" the boy just continued to stare at Naruto "not much of a talker huh?" Naruto asked, as the boy didn't move an inch._ ' Ok, this guy is creepy, and I'm getting a weird vibe from him too' _Naruto heard deep laughter in his mind _' ok Kyuubi, what do you know about our friend here?' _he felt the demon smile in his mind **" sorry brat, I don't feel like sharing right now, but I'll tell you this, you two are two sides of the same coin" **and with that he felt the fox recede back into he darkness of its prison.

' _The same coin huh?' _Naruto thought to himself looking at his possible opponent _' well now, that's interesting'. _Naruto shifted a little under Gaara's gaze " well now is there something you wanted?" Naruto's hand suddenly came to his face and he smiled under his mask as he held a shuriken mad of sand inches from his face " now was that necessary?" The shuriken collapsed to the ground in a heap of sand and dragged itself back to the boy " your blood would make mother unhappy" the boy stated as he turned around and started walking away "It was hell wasn't it?" he asked Gaara.

Gaara stiffened at the question "The loneliness, was hard,... Always asking yourself what your purpose was... never knowing if you would see the next day or if anyone cared if you were alive, having to live alone in the shadows of the world so you wouldn't get hurt"

"You know nothing of what you speak," Gaara replied coldly as he stared over his shoulder only to receive a masked smile from Naruto as he pulled his shirt up enough as he focused chakra to his stomach, reveling his seal " on the contrary, I know most of all, Thanks to my Nine tailed fox friend We're the same, you and I..."

The redheads eyes widened in surprise for a quick moment before he merely grunted in response and turned back around "my name is Sabaku no Gaara, I hold the one tail Shukaku" he said, "I am interested in your name" Naruto grinned a little " Naruto Uzumaki, I hold the Nine tail Kyuubi". Gaara didn't know why but he could feel as the Shukaku inside of him stirred, growing restless, angry, and…fearful of the boy in front of him. Gaara figured even though the blond in front of him had a stronger tailed beast he would still win because of his sand.

Gaara grunted again and started to walk away " perhaps mother will like your blood after all, I look forward to fighting you Naruto Uzumaki" and with that he disappeared in a swirl of sand " well now, looks like this just got a whole lot more interesting, don't you agree Kyuubi?" feeling the fox's laughter once again in his mind Naruto started walking again towards his clients house.

--

Temari was watching out the window of their teams room uneasily, she was anxious for her brothers return despite her fear of him " he should be back by now," she whispered as Kankuro looked up from the maintenance he was doing on Karasu.

" Temari, I know your worried but you know he'll come back soon as he's had enough" hearing the door open they saw as Gaara walked past the open door into his room " see, there he is" Kankuro said as Temari jumped up and walked after him, sighing Kankuro fallowed her. The stood outside the room occupied by their brother, and hesitantly Temari reached out for it, only for it to creak open reveling Gaara in the corner of the dark room.

"Um, Gaara, what happened when you went out?" Temari asked as her brother remained still in the shadows with his eyes closed " uh, I mean did anyone cause you trouble or…" Gaara opened his eyes " I didn't kill anyone while I was out" this statement made both Temari and Kankuro step back in shock, their brother never went out without killing someone while Baki or themselves weren't around " but I did meet someone interesting, the one protecting the target for tomorrow" Gaara suddenly smiled making his siblings very worried, Gaara only smiled when something that excited him had happened " he's like me, he has a monster inside him as well" Kankuro nearly lost it when he heard that, Gaara was bad enough when fighting normal shinobi, he had no idea how far he might go when facing off another demon container. "

"Gaara, please let us take care of it, you don't have to do anything" Temari pleaded with her brother only to cringe as he glared at her " mother wants his blood" Gaara stated as he walked from one corner to the window on the other side of the room "if you get in the way I wont hesitate to kill you."

--

The next day

--

Noujou walked out of his house, it was early in the morning and just as Naruto had said no one had attacked the property, but now said bodyguard was no where to be found in the house, it was then he heard the sound of strikes against wood. Fallowing the sound he found Naruto kicking and punching a large log that had been shove halfway into the ground, all the while he was counting off his hits " two hundred ninety eight, two hundred ninety nine, three hundred" at that Naruto stepped away from the log and sat down.

" So old man, you ready for tonight?" Naruto asked as he picked up a bottle of water next to him and drank it contents slowly. " About as ready as you are kid" Noujou responded with a small smile gracing his lips making Naruto chuckle " well then, we have nothing to worry about now do we?" Naruto asked as he stood up and his blade flew from under his cloak, cutting the log in half " I'm looking forward to this fight, just another step to my dream." Naruto said to himself as he looked up at the blue sky above.

--

That Night

--

Naruto was sitting on the porch of the house looking up at the cloud filled night sky. His breath caused small fog clouds to rise from his mask " How can it go from hot to cold so quick?" Naruto asked as he flicked a spark of flame on his fingers, keeping the cold at bay for the moment " that's the wonder of this place" Turning his head around Naruto found Noujou standing at the door with a cup of hot tea in his hands " thought you might enjoy this".

Naruto smiled under his mask as he took the drink and removed his mask, drinking the hot liquid quickly feeling it warming his body " shouldn't you be somewhere safer? I mean its not much use protecting the land if the client dies while I'm defending it " Naruto asked as Noujou shook his head " no, I'm not leaving, even if I die I'll be happy knowing it was on my land and no one else's" Naruto chuckled a little " you're a strange one old man"

"Look who's talking" Noujou muttered making Naruto outright laugh almost choking on what was left of his drink. "Ok I get it" Naruto said as a cool breeze flew over him, making him look up into the sky " looks like the shows about to start, get inside Noujou-san". As Noujou shut the front door Naruto looked out to the tree's limits as he felt the winds shifting _' looks like two of them, this should be interesting' _Naruto pulled his mask back on as he continued to watch the tree line in front of him. He heard walking behind him and looking over his shoulder he saw Noujou walking with a slight hobble towards him " hey old man, didn't I tell you to get inside?"

Noujou nodded " yeah but I thought what's the point if I'm attacked while I'm inside?" Noujou asked making Naruto laugh " don't worry about that," Naruto said as he gave a sharp glance at Noujou "because you're not going to make it past the door" suddenly Noujou lunged for Naruto, forcing Naruto to roll back in a dodge and kick Noujou in the side of the head sending him off the porch and onto the dirt road in front of it. "No use keeping this gimmick up now, show yourself," Naruto said as he readied his sword.

Then Noujou slowly rose up like a zombie as his head twisted sideways to stare at Naruto, half his face gone to revel a strange looking wooden puppet beneath, its mouth wide open as if in a mocking laugh " well now this is new" Naruto muttered as the rest of the puppets disguise crumbled away.

" Your good discovering it was Karasu and not the old man, how did a runt like you know?" a voice asked from all around Naruto making him glance at the treetops _'damn it, he's hiding in the tree's, I got to lure him out somehow or fighting this puppet is going to be like trying to break a rock with a wet piece of wet grass" _Naruto thought "the old man may be ancient but he doesn't have a limp in the leg, guess Akogi left that out when he told you about him huh?" Naruto yelled only to hear Noujou yell indignantly from inside the house " I'm not that old!!"

The puppet jumped at Naruto again only to have its arms blocked by Naruto's sword " is this the best you got?" Naruto asked as he pushed against the puppet. Naruto heard ripping and jump up just in time to avoid the two newly sprouted arms underneath the first pair that if not avoided would have impaled him on the kunai tied to the wrists.

Naruto sent a high kick straight to the puppets chin hoping to try to crack a joint and disable it only to see it's head snap back into place and open its mouth wide " Shit!" Naruto cursed as he saw a large knife in the mouth and twist his body just enough that the dagger missed it target. The knife slammed into the deck of the house and Naruto glanced at it briefly _' there's poison on the blade, damn the whole things probably rigged with that shit' _Naruto thought as he dodged a punch from all four hands of the puppet.

Naruto gained a footing against the marionette only to suddenly get hit from the side by a strong blast of wind _" damn I was so preoccupied fighting that walking log pile I forgot to look for jutsus from the other attacker'_ Naruto slammed to the ground and looked up to see the puppet with it's arms raised and pointed to him, the fingers made into points sharp enough the would cut right through him.

Naruto barely dodged them as the puppets hands broke into the ground below it. _' I got to get it on a one on one basis, that puppets attacking me at close rang and the others giving long rang support' _Naruto thought as he jumped backwards to avoid another jutsu as the puppet charged him _' I wonder if this guy can take what he gives' _

" Hey what kind of shinobi fights with a doll!" Naruto yelled into the trees, having the desired effect as Kankuros short temper ran out "YOU RUNT! Now your dead!" The puppet was even faster now, the attacks wild and seemingly random as Naruto dodged each and everyone with ease _'wow that was better than I could have hoped, now I just need to find him' _Naruto watched the trees as the puppet moved. Then Naruto saw something out of the corner of his eye, a branch moved as if being bent by an invisible force _' There he is!!'_

"Kankuro calm down! You're going to give away our position if you don't stop this now!" Temari hissed quietly as she watched her brother blindly attack the blond who was more trouble than they thought he would be. Not heading her words Kankuro used another one of his puppets hidden weapons, one sure to get rid of the pest below.

Naruto watched as the puppet shot a round object at him at an incredible speed, taking a deep breath Naruto used his bloodline and blew the object towards where his opponents lay hidden, forcing both of them out of the tree as it exploded in a cloud of paralyzing purple smoke _'a poison bomb, sneaky and underhanded in a fight like this' _Naruto smirked _'this guy is good'_. " Damn it!" Kankuro yelled as he landed " That's for the runt comment!" Naruto yelled as he pushed his foot sideways on the ground at the puppet master, making a pillar of rock jettison from the ground and almost hit Kanuro in the chest, if Karasu hadn't absorbed the attack.

" Wow you're a weak one, I've had rocks that put up more of a fight than you do" Naruto mocked as he started to back away slightly prompting Kankuro to fallow " I'll show you who can fight!" Kankuro yelled as two more arms busted from the puppets sides. Then Kankuro made Karasu charge at Naruto once again, making Naruto smirk under his mask _'got him'_.

" Kankuro look out!" Temari yelled, from her position she had been unable to attack the blond without risking hitting her brother also, unfortunately her warning came too late as the puppets foot lifted a concealed string and from underneath the dirt and leaves, a metal net with four kunai's tied to each end shot up and caught not only the puppet but Kankuro as well, pushing them back and against a tree where the kunai's embedded themselves into the tree, trapping both the puppet and its owner together. " You think this is going to stop me?!" Kankuro yelled making Naruto smile " your not going anywhere makeup boy" Naruto teased as Kankuro grimaced " as soon as I'm free, I'll…what the hell!" Kankuro shouted, " I can't move my body!"

Naruto's laughter cut through the forest " I added a bit of a poison of my own to the net, it wont kill you but you not going to be able to move for a couple hours, and don't even think of using your puppet" Naruto said in a light tone " this net is made of chakra absorbing metal, your chakra stings are useless while your trapped in it" Naruto said as he started to walk away from Kankuro as he let loose a cry of rage at his predicament.

Naruto suddenly ducked as the girl swung her giant fan at his head almost taking it off as her momentum made her slam it into the ground creating s crater where it hit. " Are you crazy?! That could have killed me!" Naruto shouted making Temari almost fall over in shock before she started swinging at him again " That's the point you stupid baka!!" she yelled as Naruto continued to jump, dodge, and evade her every swing. "So close that time" Naruto said as he dodged again " nope try again" needless to say Temari was getting very annoyed with the blond boys antics.

" Stay still and die already!" Temari yelled as she charged Naruto "hmm, no I don't think so" Naruto said as he jumped over her attack. Temari turned and faced Naruto, deciding she had enough of his tricks her fan opened all the way making Naruto's eyes widen as he saw what was coming next.

" Kamaitachi no Jutsu!!" Temari shouted as she swung he fan at Naruto and a tornado of wind ripped towards Naruto. Naruto dodged as best he could but the winds generated glanced his shoulders forcing Naruto to roll on the ground before jumping back wards to his feet as Temari slammed her fan onto the spot he was just a moment ago.

Temari swung her fan making a powerful gust of wind rip through the clearing picking up rock and debris, lucky Naruto he had pushed chakra to his feet just in time, anchoring himself to the ground as he raised his arms to his face, protecting himself from the flying fragments of earth. " This will get you!" Temari shouted as she swung her fan again, Naruto watched in shock as the winds ripped the earth up as it headed towards him "KUSO!!" Naruto shouted as he vainly tried to dodge the attack as it cut into one of his arms and legs as he dodge, leaving deep cuts in the limbs.

Naruto fell to one knee after the attack ended, cradling his injured arm with his other one, wincing as the pain in his arm and leg shot through him full force _'Kami that fucking hurts!!'_ Naruto thought as Temari advanced on him "Naruto!" a voice called out drawing their attention to the house when Noujou had left the safety of the building. Temari smirked seeing the target, if she killed him here then her brother wouldn't get involved in this.

She turned to attack him only to feel a blade against her throat " to get to Noujou-san you have to go through me" a voice whispered threateningly in her ear, slowly turning her head she saw the masked face of Naruto whose eyes promised pain if she tried, looking down she held in a gasp as her eyes widened, his arm and leg she had caught with her last attack, although still covered in blood, were fully healed leaving not even a scar on his skin _' what is he?' _Temari thought in fear as they heard clapping fill the air.

" No matter how many times I see you fight you put on quiet the show" Akogi said as he walked towards them. " Akogi" Noujou growled in barely restrained anger. " Come now Noujou surely this farce has gone on long enough" Akogi sighed as a grin overtook his face " or maybe you need final demonstration" Akogi said as Naruto's eyes widened, pushing Temari away, Naruto dove just in time as several sand shuriken struck where he was just standing._' great, now the main attractions about to start'_ Naruto thought as Gaara walked into the clearing.

" Gaara no!" Temari cried as she tried to move, only to fall onto her back _' no! I breathed in some of Kankuro's poison, I can't move!' _Temari thought knowing that the amount that she inhaled would keep her down but wasn't fatal. Temari could only watch helplessly as Gaara advanced on their opponent, his intent clear to all in the area as Naruto tensed.

" Now" Gaara said quietly but rose in volume as he smelled the scent of Naruto's blood in the air "Make me, make me feel alive Naruto Uzumaki!" an explosion of sand behind Gaara signaled an attack as it rose up and shot like an arrow towards Naruto. Naruto watched as it neared him and exploded, making a claw made of sand " damn it!" Naruto yelled as he jumped back over as the claw that crashed into the ground.

Gaara stared impassively as Naruto avoided his attacks but inside his head his demon was screaming for the end **" YES!! ****KILL HIM BEFORE HE KILLS YOU GAARA!! YOU MUST!! SO WE CAN HAVE HIS BLOOD!!" **Shukaku roared with glee as Gaara continued his attacks. Suddenly one attack changed direction and slammed into Naruto's side, knocking him from his feet and crashing against the side of the house. Naruto slowly rose up o face Gaara " that hurt" Naruto said as he reached into his pocket and brought out a few seeds.

Gaara stared impassively watching what Naruto was doing taking no action as Naruto flicked the seeds to him, the shield of sand not even raising itself to block them. Naruto smirked making Gaara wonder what was so amusing to the blond as he slammed a hand into the ground "Kubiwa Kouba no Jutsu!" Naruto shouted as the seeds that lay at Gaara's feet sprung to life, thick vines exploding from them and wrapping themselves around his arms and legs, Gaara not expecting such an attack was immobilized as his eyes widened.

Naruto performed a few hand seals ending in tiger and as he pulled down his mask he shouted "Katon- Gokakyu no Jutsu!!" sending a good-sized fireball at Gaara. " GAARA!!" Temari and Kankuro shouted as the fireball engulfed the red head, Naruto returned his mask to its place and watched cautiously as the body fell to the ground in flames. Akogi paled a bit while Noujou yelled happily.

" Way to go Naruto!!" Naruto watched as the flames died down a bit before saying just loud enough for all to hear " this isn't over yet" Naruto jumped away just in time to avoid getting pierced by a spike of sand. He sand siblings watched in shock and a bit relief as their brother appeared from the ground, fine except a bit of dirt on his cloths.

Temari looked over at what she had though was her brother and saw he had substituted himself for a rock at the last second. She sighed knowing her brother was safe. Gaara started to attack Naruto again, this time Naruto was barely able to jump from where he landed before the spot he was just standing was attacked.

Naruto countered Gaara's attacks with his own sending fireballs and chunks of earth at Gaara's defenses. Each and everyone of them impacting on the shield of sand around Gaara effectively making it impossible for Naruto to actually hurt him even as Gaara was able attack with his and almost hit Naruto. Naruto flew through a few hand seals as he ran towards Gaara " Kasen no Jutsu!" Naruto shouted as an arrow of flame shot towards Gaara at a amazing speed and impacted on his shield. Naruto dodged another attack as he jumped out of the way of some sand shuriken

" It really is unfortunate isn't it?" Akogi said to Noujou as he watched Gaara continue his attacks against Naruto, not giving him time enough to get one of his own " to think that boy will soon be dead, unless of course you sign your land over now" Noujou stared as Akogi pulled a few bills from his pocket " this place just eats up money, this will actually give you something to put in your pocket. In fact sign now and not only will your friend live, but I'll pay you everything this place is worth" Akogi said waving the bills in the air.

As Naruto dodged another attack the sound of thunder filled the air and lightning flashed the sky. Naruto and Gaara stopped their attacks momentarily and turned and looked at the sight of Akogi holding burning money in his hands and Noujou in a fighters stance with an arm raised and two smoking fingers pointed right where the bills were " that's what I think of your offer you good-for-nothing parasite!" Noujou yelled.

" Old man, you're a ninja?" Naruto yelled in surprise as Noujou smiled and breathed hard " I never did tell you what my job was before I retired did I?" Noujou replied as he wiped his hand with his sleeve " its been so long I'm a lot weaker than I was in my prime, but I think I still have it in me to get off another one of those lightning jutsus before I'm tapped out" Noujou said eyeing Akogi's head like a bull's-eye. Akogi turned to Gaara and began shouting furiously " What are you doing?! Kill this old fool right now or I'll…" Gaara's glare cut Akogi off as the sands wrapped around him, forming a cocoon around the rich man " your annoying" Gaara muttered as he raised his fist and clenched his hand causing the wealthy man to be crushed by the sand, blood spraying from it.

Naruto stared in shock as Gaara turned to face him " OLD MAN!" Naruto shouted getting Noujous attention " get out of here now!" Naruto yelled as he tore his cloak from its place and tossed it to the side, where it crashed to the ground hard making a small impact crater on the ground. Naruto charged Gaara leaving a cloud of dust after leaping towards him.

Gaara's sand shield was about to raise to him protect from a punch from Naruto, but in mid jump a few feet from Gaara, Naruto blurred from view making Gaara's eyes widen in surprise again before an axe kick to the back of the head courtesy of Naruto sent him almost to the ground before he recovered and watched as Naruto took off into the trees towards the outskirts into the desert. Gaara grunted in annoyance and disappeared in a swirl of sand, leaving Noujou and the two-disabled sand shinobi behind.

" What the hell just happened?" Noujou said when he saw a Jounin land beside the immobilized genin " That boy recognizes the danger Gaara presents to you and this place" The Jounin said as he picked up Temari over his shoulder " he's lured Gaara away so he can fight him without the restraint of harm to your land, he probably wants you to leave incase he fails to defeat him"

The Jounin finished as he pulled Kankuro free from the trap and holding him on his other shoulder as he held Karasu in his hand " I'm retreating with the rest of my team, it would be wise to do the same before Gaara returns" . Noujou was in shock " you aren't going to kill me?" the Jounin stared at him a moment before shaking his head " the client is dead, we gain nothing from killing you, all the same you should head my warning and leave now" and with that the Jounin disappeared in a blur, taking his young students and the marionette with him.

--

Naruto reached the edge of the land and increased his speed as his feet hit the sand, kicking up a cloud as he ran further and further away from the land he swore to protect _' that's it, keep fallowing me, you know if you want your chance you got to go as far as I do" _Naruto thought as he felt the presence of the blood crazy boy behind him. Naruto looked behind him and saw that Noujous land was now a dot on the horizon.

Deciding that this was far enough Naruto stopped running by sliding his feet into the soft sand, slowly he came to a stop as the sand built into small mounds at his feet. Naruto watched the way he just came from with a sharp look, and then he saw him, Gaara who had chased after him like a predator chasing an easy meal slowly rose from the sand, his arms crossed and the same emotionless look on his face.

They stared at each other, both leaking out killing intent that hung in the air " why do you protect that old farmer Naruto Uzumaki? Why do you fight?" Gaara whispered as Naruto stared " for my precious people" Naruto responded making Gaara frown.

" Your reason is weak Naruto Uzumaki, people hurt and hinder, thinking only of themselves, you must live only for yourself to be strong" Gaara said making Naruto shake his head " your wrong Gaara, you can only become strong by protecting those you care about" Naruto said as he stared at the red head with a knowing look " I was like you once, at the edge of that black pit of hell and loneliness, everyone in my village hated me and… I hated them too," Naruto said quietly as he looked at the ground.

" I didn't know why they did, I tried being nice, to make friends, I never did anything wrong, but they kept hating me. Eventually I think deep down I started hating myself too, I don't know why but I did" then Naruto smiled a bit " but then the hokage came to me, he was the first to actually like me for being me" Naruto said looking at Gaara again.

" Then slowly things started getting better, a teacher, a chef and his daughter, slowly people started to like me more, it became more bearable" Naruto thought of everyone he had ever met that had treated him like a human, the hokage giving him abirthday gift and helping him to buy groceries, Iruka helping him with some homework after class, Ayame and Teuchi listening to a story of his latest prank on the village and giving him a free bowel of ramen as they laughed well into the night. All the memories brought a smile to Naruto's face

" Then I found my power and decided I would leave my village and become strong enough to protect them, and as I did, and along the way I found more precious people" Naruto thought of Tazuna and his family as they ate that one breakfast together, camping with Haku and Zabuza in the forest at night round a fire and getting into a fight with Zabua over the last of the dinner as Haku laughed.

" I promised myself long ago that I wouldn't give them the satisfaction of being right about me" Gaara listened intently as Naruto began to grip his sword tighter " I wouldn't let them be right about me, that I would prove them wrong and I wasn't a monster, that I was Naruto Uzumaki" Naruto's face showed nothing but determination.

" That's why I fight Gaara, " Naruto said drawing his blade with his right hand and holding I out so the side of the sword pressed against his open left hand "I fight to protect my dream Gaara, and I will die fighting to protect others and the dreams they have as well" Naruto said determinedly as the clouds overhead slowly broke revealing the full moon light and stars, making Naruto's blade and eyes gleam in the light.

Suddenly Naruto charged Gaara again signaling that the battle had begun.

--

Baki watched from a distance as Gaara and the boy began to battle again, he had taken the remainder of his squad to a large rock formation a mile or so from the original battle site. It over looked the valley and thanks to the height he could see as the boy charged in as the first attacks began. But at the moment there were more important things to take care of than to watch his one student fight, such as taking care of his other two students. He grabbed a few items from his bag and after carefully mixing some medicine with his water knelt by Temari.

"Temari, drink this it will help you get though the poisons effects" Baki said as he helped her drink a mixture of medicinal plants and water from his container. Slowly she started to drink the medicine before coughing " that stuff tastes horrible" she said quietly as he voice slowly gained strength. Baki smiled a bit as Kankuro got his attention " Baki-sensei what about me?" he asked propped up against a rock his puppet by his side.

Baki stared at Kankuro a minute " I'm sorry Kankuro the poison on the net seems to originate from the land of waves, and we don't have the antidote on hand, your just going to have to stay there until it wears off" Kankuro began to mutter darkly about stupid blonds and the various things he was going to do to Naruto the next chance he got.

" Baki-sensei" Temari whispered quietly " what is happening with Gaara?" Baki looked at her a moment before staring back out to the battle " Gaara is on the defensive again, that boy is fast enough that he can avoid Gaara's attacks and counter with his own" Kankuro grunted in anger " how is that possible? He wasn't that fast before" Baki took a moment of thought before he answered " he left his cloak back at that farmers house, before I brought you here I saw there were weights lining it, meaning he was weighted down the last time he fought Gaara".

" So what?" Kankuro said in confusion " when Gaara gets him in his sand this fights as good as done" Baki shook his head " only IF Gaara can get him in his sand can he win, but considering the boys speed and power…" Baki trailed off making Temari worried " you think Gaaa will lose?" she whispered making Baki frown " Gaara is incredibly strong, he has faced whole squads of ninja and Jounin I would never try to kill myself, but this is different, that boy is a vessel like Gaara is, a Jinchuuriki, and Gaara has never fought against another demon host before," Baki said looking up at the moon "that boy is just like Gaara he wont give up till the end"

"What are you saying Baki-sensei?" Kankuro asked as Baki turned and looked at them seriously " it is possible that Gaara wont survive this fight"

--

Naruto blocked another sand attack as Gaara's sand blocked three kunai thrown in defense. Naruto had been successful so far in avoiding major attacks Gaara had done against him. Naruto had made several Kage Bushin to try to break through Gaara's defense but the Suna Nin destroyed them as soon as Naruto made them.

Now Naruto began to notice that Gaara seemed to have a glint in his eye as he dodged some sand shuriken. Naruto's speed was keeping him from getting hit by Gaara's sand attacks, but he knew that his attacks despite getting through the sand and breaking the sand armor Gaara had covered himself in, they were ineffective and he couldn't keep this speed up forever.

' _I got to figure a way to get past that sand permanently, I cant keep getting one hit in at a time, I need to injure him through that armor of his quickly before this gets out of hand'_ In Gaara's mind his demon was going absolutely crazy **"KILL HIM AND GIVE ME HIS BLOOD!! GIVE ME BLOOD!! GIVE ME THE BLOOD OF THAT JINCHUURIKI!! GIVE IT TO ME NOW!!"**

Naruto saw the insane look in Gaara's eyes; the red head demon holder was ready to kill. Suddenly a wave of sand erupted from the gourd on Gaara's back catching Naruto's feet in the sand ' this is what he used to kill that rat face Akogi!' Naruto thought in shock and slight fear before he started making hand seals 'only one chance' Naruto thought as the sand covered him and slowly rose into the air. " Now" Gaara said "Sabaku Sōsō!!"

"Hanatsu konjou no Jutsu: Kaji!" shouted from inside the sand and suddenly an explosion erupted from inside the coffin of sand. Naruto fell from the floating sand and landed on the ground on one knee, holding a different sword than what he had before. Gaara watched Naruto as he stood up and stared at Gaara. It was then Gaara noticed something important, Naruto had changed.

"WHAT THE FUCKING HELL!!" a red haired orange-eyed Naruto yelled in rage, it sound like Naruto but like a voice was overlapped with it " I'M GOING TO RIP THAT GOURD FROM YOUR BACK AND SHOVE IT SO FAR UP YOUR ASS YOU"LL BE TASTING SAND FOR A YEAR!!" the Naruto finished as he pulled his mask down and breathed fire towards Gaara forcing his sand wall to protect him. As Naruto finished the attack Gaara allowed his sand shield to fall " You are not Uzumaki Naruto" Gaara whispered making Naruto smirk.

" Damn fucking straight, names Kaji of the fire, master decided he would let me out to play for a while so…" Kaji said as his hands encased themselves in flames and he raised his sword" lets go wild!!"

Kaji wasted no time and started tossing fireballs at Gaara as he charged, each of the impacting on Gaara's sand shield. Kaji got within striking distance of Gaara who remained behind his sand as a punch connected with it; Gaara's reaction came only as he saw a red glow to part of his shield where the fist connected.

Gaara barely missed having his head burned off as the fist broke through by his head, the sand slowly broke away revealing a smirking Kaji " this is useless against me, I'll melt through it every time you use it" Gaara glanced down at sand that had been melted and some had turned to glass, still glowing red on the sand of the desert. Kaji seeing the opportunity raised his sword " Pay attention asshole!" Kaji yelled swinging his sword down straight to Gaara's shoulder.

--

" Looks like this is about over, Gaara's got him in his sand after all" Baki said watching the fight intently. Baki was amazed at how long the blond had lasted against Gaara. No doubt due to his speed and swordsmanship. But he knew there was no escape for anyone once Gaara got someone like this.

Temari stared at the sky as she lay on the ground " when do you think we can go get Gaara?" she quietly asked knowing soon they would have to leave. " I don't know, we should wait and see how Gaara is acting before we…" an explosion cut off Baki's sentence drawing his attention back to the fight " no, it cant be" Baki whispered in shock " he got out of Gaara's attack, and now Gaara's the one on the defense again"

" What?" Kankuro exclaimed almost falling over " that's not possible, how?" Baki shook his head again " I don't know but if that boy is strong enough to get out of Gaara's sand like that then we might have to move again. If Gaara lets the Shukaku out it could come after us when it levels everything in the area" Baki said seriously as he grabbed his bag and started packing everything that he had taken out " do you really think that Gaara will have to use Shukaku to fight that runt?" Kankuro asked. His answer came in the form of a scream from the fight

" AHHHHH!! BLOOD… IM BLEEDING!!" that shout froze the blood of the rest of the sand ninja.

--

Kaji dodged quickly " The fuck is wrong with you now?!" Kaji yelled as he flipped back to dodge another sand arm. As soon as his sword cut into Gaara's shoulder the red head had gone nuts, his sand whipping wildly around him in a frenzy of motion and speed it seemed his attacks were even more erratic. " MOTHER!! I'M HURT!!" Gaara screamed as he held his head " The fuck you on about now? We're the only ones here you fucking psycho!" Kaji yelled as he jumped over a sand arm _' what the fuck, I manage to draw blood and he goes fucking crazy!' _Kaji thought as two more hands of sand tried to grab him only to be severed by Kaji's sword.

" U**Z**U**MK**I N**A**RUT**O!!" **Gaara yelled as his voice started to change. The sand began to flow down his arm " I **WA**N**T Y**OU**R **BL**OOD!!" **The half Gaara half Shukau roared " N**OW.. L**ET **ME F**EE**L IT!" **The possessed boy yelled and with unnatural speed appeared in font of Kaji, who had no time to react as a sand arm wrapped around him and slammed in into the ground.

Lifting Kaji into the air the possessed Gaara continued to slam his helpless prey into the sand of the desert. After doing this a number of times Gaara slowly dragged the body across the sand towards him till they were face to face.

" **P**at**he**ti**c** is **th**i**s** a**ll** t**h**e N**in**e t**ails** is **ca**p**abl**e **of?**" growled Gaara as he stared at Kaji who seemed to have passed out from the attack till his red eyes opened " nope this is fucker!" Kaji yelled as his flame infused fist connected with Gaara's chin making him release Kaji from his grasp. Kaji landed and stared at Gaara as he faced him down, sheathing his sword Kaji brought his hands together " your not the only one that change you fucker!" Kaji yelled as he made a few hand seals ending on tora.

"Shakaku no Jutsu!!" Kaji yelled and suddenly his whole body burst into flames, the fire condensed to his back seeming to make wings of bright fire. His hands were aglow in flames of bright red and orange in one hand and blue and white in the other. Flames seemed to flare from the sides of his eyes " now fucker lets turn up the heat!!" Kaji said and flew across the sands at Gaara leaving scorch marks in the sand. Gaara threw his sand arm at Kaji to stop his only for it to be burned through as Kaji's fire encased hands come I contact with the sand.

Suddenly Kaji was in front Gaara holding a orb of flame in his hands "Eikoudan no jutsu!" in a sudden flash of light Gaara cried out as he was blinded " I**'m** g**oi**n**g **to **KILL** y**o**u!!" Gaara yelled, as his eyes cleared.

"Not if I kill you first asshole!" Kaji yelled from his place in the sky the moon behind him making a silver silhouette around him and the wings of fire on his back "Ryuuko no jutsu!" Kaji yelled and thrust his hands towards Gaara a stream of red/orange fire coming from his right and blue/white from his left, as they neared Gaara the red flames took the head of a dragon and the blue flames that of a tiger. Each of the seemed to roar as they slammed into Gaara at the same time and an explosion rocked the desert making a cloud of sand fill the air.

Kaji watched as the dust settled, ready to attack again if Gaara had somehow protected himself. Gaara had in fact not been able to and right now the sand was sliding off of him in large chunks "Da**m**n **yo**u Uz**uma**ki**!!" **Gaara groaned as he tried to stay up. " Now I'm going to end this once and for all!!" Kaji yelled as he flew towards Gaara arm raised to strike as it burst into flames " Now die!!" Kaji yelled as he neared Gaara. Gaara closed his eyes and prepared for the impact of the attack.

--

Gaara opened his eyes and gasped as he sat up in a bed breathing hard Gaara suddenly realized something wasn't right. He had just been fighting that Naruto Uzumaki and was about to be hit; now he wakes up in a bed and is clearly in a room of the kage's tower of Suna. Frowning at the stupidity of the situation Gaara calmly raised his hands to a hand seal and muttered "Kai" but nothing happened making Gaara's eyes widen. He was sure he was in a genjutsu but his attempt to break it failed; he tried again, and again, on his third try he lowered his arms in annoyance and wondered to himself if it was all a dream.

That was another thing that bothered Gaara, he couldn't sleep, if he did the Shukaku would take over his mind so how was he able to sleep like this at all. " Mother" Gaara said before his eyes widened, he couldn't hear the Shukaku in his mind. Every second of his life the demon had been telling him what to do as it screamed in his mind, now it was silent and Gaara knew something was not right. Acting quickly he watched as the sand came to him, unknowingly letting out a sigh of relief that his power was still with him.

Suddenly he heard children's laughter from outside his door, getting off the bed he walked to the door opening it he saw an empty hallway silent and void of life like a grave. Then he heard the same laughter down the hall around the corner. Frowning a bit he walked after the voice as it led him through the hallways. Eventually Gaara realized the voices were leading him up the tower to the roof of the tower.

Opening the door he found someone looking over the village, the person was tall with blond hair and wearing a blue shirt and shinobi attire. _' Good now I will get some answers and mother will talk to me again after I kill this person' _Gaara thought as he approached the figure ahead of him. " You, where is everyone? What is going on?" Gaara asked the person with the weirdest feeling of familiarity " Why Gaara-sama" the figure said as he turned around making Gaara freeze in shock and the first time in a long time a bit of fear stroke his heart as he saw who it was " Is that a way to speak to your uncle?"

" Yashamaru" Gaara whispered as the figure smiled at him " of course Gaara-sama, who else would I be?" Yashamaru asked as he walked to Gaara, who stepped back " your not real, I killed you" Gaara stated as his uncle stood in front of him " true Gaara-sama you killed me, but didn't I teach you that no one is truly gone if we keep them in our hearts?" Yashamaru asked as he bent down and looked at Gaara with a sad smile " you still hurt inside don't you Gaara-sama?" Yashamaru asked making Gaara unnerved " I don't feel anymore I live for myself just like mother wished" Gaara stated.

Yashamaru shook his head " Gaara-sama I can feel your pain, even now your heart hurts" Yashamaru said and suddenly froze in place making Gaara concerned " uncle" Gaara asked quietly. Suddenly Yashamaru started to turn to sand and collapsed to the ground. Gaara stared at what had been his uncle as it blew away with the wind.

" Wonderful isn't it Gaara" a voice said behind him and when Gaara turned saw himself, the dark part of himself was standing there with a crazed look and his right arm incased in the shukaku's sand. The yellow and black eyes of the Shukaku like Gaara stared at the original with a wide crazed grin as sand slipped around his double like a snake.

"Everyone's gone now, we put them back in the earth that spawned them" the dark Gaara said with a crazed laugh, " no one left to kill, everyone dead…all but one" the dark Gaara said as he stared at the original with a smile like a predator.

" Now I want to feel it" the dark Gaara said and raised his arm towards the original " I want to feel your blood!" The sand rushed Gaara and clung to his legs. Gaara out of shock tried to do the same only this time the sand would not come, it did not rise up to protect him or attack his target, Gaara was soon incased in the same sand he had used to crush so many people with. Gaara struggled against the sand as he felt it squeezing him tighter and tighter, he felt his breath leaving him as the sand reached his neck.

" Now…" the other Gaara said as the sand covered Gaara's head as he struggled and a maniacal laugh filled he air "Sabaku Sōsō!!"

--

" NOOOOO!!" Gaara screamed to the sky as he clutched his head, the sands rising like a wave around him forcing Kaji to jump back or risk getting swallowed by the sand as it came alive _' what the freaking fuck?! I didn't think he would react so violently to the Hiai tori no Jutsu!' _Kaji thought as the sand rose and fell almost seeming to take on shapes as it rose up higher and higher from the ground finally it stopped moving and Kaji was now facing a monster of sand that could crush him with one hand " fuck… me" Kaji whispered as slowly on the head of the monster Gaara appeared with a sickening grin on his face.

" You've given me a good fight Naruto Uzumaki, you even made me feel fear, now I'll stop holding back and show you the true strength of Shukaku" Gaara said as he raised his hands up into a seal. "Yanuki Neiri no Jutsu!!" Gaara shouted and suddenly he slumped over and the yellow eyes of the monster gleamed and it reared up in a sickeningly terrible laugh.

--

Baki watched as Gaara and the boy continued to attack each other with renewed ferocity. Gaara seemed to get a temporary boost from his second form but the boy's fire attacks were taking its toll on Gaara. Then just when it seemed that Gaara was going to win again the strange boy somehow managed to separate himself from Gaara again then somehow he actually flew into the air and an explosion rocked the desert.

The rock formation that he had put them on actually shook from the force of the blast of fire and sand" Baki-sensei what's happening, what happened to Gaara?" Temari asked " it seems that whoever that kid is he put Gaara in a genjutsu" Baki said as he watched the battle carefully.

The sound of Kankuro laughing filled the air " that little punk is so stupid, Gaara will get out of that in a second, " Kankuro laughed as he moved his finger a bit making him frown in that how slowly the poison was leaving his system. Baki frowned a bit as time went on " I don't think Gaara is able to get out of the genjutsu that that kid put him under, whatever it is Gaara isn't dispelling it" Baki said as he watched Gaara standing still, his sand not even moving from the desert floor.

Suddenly a scream penetrated the silence of the night sky " NOOOOO!!" Baki looked over and saw as the sands began to rise into the air and as it got higher and higher Baki realized what was going on and quickly grabbed his pack and his two remaining students and puppet before shouting " we're leaving!!" and jumped from the formation and quickly began to run as fast as he could in the opposite direction of his last student, knowing full well what was coming

--

" **HAHAHAHAHA!! I'm free! Finally I'm free!!" **the Shukaku laughed, **" I can't wait to start killing and slaughtering again!! And I get to start with a wannabe ninja who gave my pathetic host a problem!!" **the Shukau shouted as it raised its hand up into the air before bringing it down towards Kaji almost crushing him beneath it if Kaji hadn't move at the last moment. " Kami! What the fuck is this shit?!" Kaji yelled and he kept running from the hands of the Shukaku just barely making it every time as the shadow of the hands kept rising over him.

Kaji pulled a kunai from his holster and as the hand just barely missed him again turned around and threw it towards the towering Shukau and bringing his hands to a seal shouted "Shuriken Kage Bushin no Jutsu!!" Kaji's single kunai turned into a hundred then two hundred seeming to continue to multiply as it neared the Shukaku before it impacted on the body of sand filling the air with dust and loose sand " Yeah! Take that you fucking crazy ass weirdo!" Kaji shouted with a masked grin as the attacks stopped.

Suddenly the Sukaku's hand swung from the dust cloud and smacked Kaji from the side with bone crushing force sending Kaji skipping on the sand like a pebble on water before he finally skidded to a stop laying on his stomach Kaji slowly started moving.

" Kami…fucking…damn it" Kaji slowly said as he pulled himself over onto his back " feels like a fucking train hit me" Kaji said as his eyes closed and the red hair slowly turned back to yellow " I cant fucking believe I lost" Kaji whispered quietly as his voice faded from Naruto's before Kaji fully receded back into Naruto.

" **HAHAHAHA!! That was fun!! Now I will do what my container couldn't and feed you to the sands!!" **Shukaku laughed as it raised its hand over Naruto again **" Goodbye Naruto Uzumaki!!"** the Shukaku shouted as it swung its hand down towards Naruto. Naruto watched as the hand neared him _' this is how it ends?' _Naruto thought before suddenly he blurred in a burst of speed from his place in the sand just seconds before the monstrous hand crashed to the desert floor.

" **Gyahhhhh!"** the Shukau roared in rage as it turned around and saw the person who had denied it of killing Naruto **" who the hell are you!!"** the Shukaku shouted making the man smile as he held Naruto under his arm.

" Good question!" the man shouted as he started a weird dance "Foul beast of the sands beware for now you face the most holy hermit and Sannin of Mount Myoboku, the man whose charms can tame even the most wild women, the master of toads its me!" suddenly a huge puff of smoke and the man was standing on a huge orange toad with a sword and pipe "Jiraiya!!" the man shouted striking a weird pose. " Didn't think it was a Sannin watching me this whole time" Naruto groaned from the pain making Jiraiya raise an eye _' he knew I was watching him?'_

**" Jiraiya why have you summoned me?"** The toad asked in an annoyed tone as it smoked its pipe. Suddenly very serious, Jiraiya frowned " we need to stop that kid, he's got the Shukaku sealed in him" Jiraiya said " what you think Gamabunta" The gaint toad stared over at the possessed boy and frowned.

" Looks like whoever did his seal wasn't a master in the art, now the only way to stop the Shukaku is to wake the host up or kill him" suddenly a groan made the conversation stop as Naruto gained strength " let me do it" Naruto said weakly making the two wonder what he meant " let me be the one to wake him up"

Jiraiya shook his head " no way gaki, you did well for a kid but your no good the way you are right now, besides your low on chakra" Naruto wiggled his way from Jiraiya's grasp and carefully stood up " don't count…me out…yet" Naruto breathed heavily as he reached into a pocket and pulled out a soldier pill " just get me close to him" Naruto said as he popped the pill into his mouth " I'll handle the rest from there"

Jiraiya stared at Naruto a moment, as he seemed to spring back and started stretching his arm a little " why you care about this kid anyway?" Jiraiya asked, " Because he's like me" Naruto replied making Jiraiya and Gamabunta raise their eyes _' he knows about Kyuubi?'_

" At any rate arguing about this will get us no where" Naruto said as he stared at the Shukaku " it was my fight to start and I'm going to be the one who ends it" Naruto said as he brought his hands together and after running through them once again shouted out "Hanatsu konjou no Jutsu: Kaji!"

Jiraiya watched as Naruto's hair bristled and from the tips of his hair down to his pony tail the color changed from yellow to red and Naruto opened his eyes showing bright orange once again " Yeah! Second round mother fucker!" Kaji yelled making Jiraiya a bit nervous " I think this kid has split personalities or something" Kaji glared at Jiraiya " your next" he said before grinning.

Suddenly the Shukaku's already short temper ran out **" don't ignore me!!"** it shouted as it inhaled deeply " Renkyudan!" the Shukaku said as it shot aball of air towards its targets. **" I'm gonna jump!!"** Gamabunta yelled before leaping into the air " what the hell!!" Kaji yelled as they went airborne not expecting the sudden leap by the toad. Jiraiya held onto Kaji as they landed incase he might fall off; Kaji mumbled about idiot animals and stupid jutsus.

" Hey old guy how far you think you can throw me from here " Kaji asked making Jiraiya slightly irritated " I don't know if an old guy like me can throw such a disrespectful gaki" Jiraiya commented sarcastically before looking at the Shukaku " but I'd say at least halfway if we get a bit closer to that thing, why?"

Kaji smirked " I plan on ending this right now, I got a jutsu that will take care of this fucker in one hit" Kaji flexed his hand a bit as it flared into a fireball " just get me there and then the bastard wont know what hit him" Jiraiya smirked " fine but after this is over you and me are going to have a talk gaki" Jiraiya smirked as he pointed to the Shukaku " ok Gamabunta lets get this over with.

Gamabunta leaped towards the Shukaku, dodging over its attacks as they made their way closer to the monster of sand. " Hey kid you sure this will work " Jiraiya asked as they got within striking range of the Shukaku " not in the least" Kaji said making Jiraiya almost smirk " well then we better be sure that this works huh?" Kaji's smile seemed to grow " I'm going to put everything I have into this one attack, so I might need you too help me get back to my clients after this"

Jiraiya grabbed the back of the possessed Naruto's shirt " ok gaki I hope your ready " Jiraiya yelled as he swung Kaji around before tossing him off Gamabunta and towards Shukaku. The possessed Naruto was already making hand signs as he was thrown, pumping as much chakra as he could into the attack Kaji yelled out "Koussei Houou no Jutsu!!"

Suddenly Kaji burst into flames that grew and spread out, and when it had finished growing a bird of flames the size of the Shukaku itself was flying between the two massive animal beings.

The bird was the colors of fire, bright reds oranges and yellows made up the body while the wings were bright greens blues and purples all seeming to flow together in one form. The eyes went from bright blues to white at the tips as the flames leapt from them. Suddenly the bird let out a screech, as it seemed to challenge the Shukaku.

Jiraiya whistled as he stared at the attack " now that is impressive" he commented making Gamabunta grunt in agreement they could see the form of Naruto in the middle of the fire as the bird jumped at the Shukaku.

As the two collided another explosion rocked the desert this one like comparing an explosive tag to a firecracker with the one before as wall of sand rose up from it. Jiraiya shielded his eyes as the sand swept like a cloud over him and Gamabunta " damn, was it a suicide jutsu he used?" Jiraiya said before ending it in a thought _' if he's dead Sarutobi-sensei will kill me'_.

Gamabunta was lost in his own thoughts while Jiraiya was contemplating his future _**" that was a powerful attack, it was certainly above B class Jutsu, it ay have been even an S ranked one, this boy is certainly turned out interesting"**_. As the dust settled two figures could be seen, Gaara had been forced awake by the blast and was on a knee a bit cut up from the attack.

He was staring at the still possessed Naruto who was slowly trying to stand back up his cloths ripped up and slight burn marks on his body. Both of them were breathing hard from exhaustion and Naruto was the first to move.

Slowly Naruto started to walk towards Gaara making him angry and almost fearful " No! I wont let you kill me!!" Gaara said even though his sands would not rise. Naruto stood in front of Gaara, the shadow of his hair covering his eyes" you…" Naruto growled out before his fist connected with Gaara's head knocking him to the ground " you stupid baka!! Killing you a thousand times wouldn't prove shit!" Naruto yelled as Kaji's features left his face once again " besides there's no point to this fight anymore" Naruto said as he fell onto his back facing up at the clear sky above " the threat to my client is dead, you made sure of that" Gaara grunted.

" That man talked too much" Gaara said making Naruto laugh before he suddenly asked " hey Gaara, lets be friends" . Gaara frowned a bit at the words " why would you want to be my…friend?" Gaara asked making Naruto shrug " I'm like you so I know how hard it's been, besides let me be the first person to help you from the darkness" Gaara seemed to think about it a moment before answering slowly " yes Naruto Uzumaki I will be your…friend" Gaara said slowly as if testing the word.

They stayed like that a short time just staring up at the sky each of them too exhausted to move " it's beautiful isn't it, the moon I mean" Naruto asked making Gaara grunt in agreement as each of them finally passed out from the fight.

Jiraiya jumped from Gamabunta and landed next to Naruto. After checking him he sighed finding him just passed out from the fight " that last Jutsu took everything he had, looks like he's gonna be out for a while" Jiraiya commented as Gamabunta smoked his pipe **" hmm he certainly is one of a kind, since there is nothing else I'm going home"** Gamabunta said before his disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

Jiraiya watched as A Suna Jounin carrying a boy and puppet along with a girl who was standing a bit weakly appeared by the red haired boy " so I take it your this boys squad leader" Jiraiya commented rather than asked as the Jounin nodded.

" Hai Jiraiya-sama" the Jounin said as Jiraiya frowned " I take it you know enough about his sealing to help me fix it properly right" those words made the Jounin look at him in shock " you would help us with that?" Jiraiya smirked " well we can't have a runaway Jinchuuriki on the loose now can we, besides I don't think blondie here would like it if I didn't help out his new friend" Baki stared at Gaara in surprise before looking at Jiraiya again and bowing his head " that would be appreciated Jiraiya-sama" Teamari meanwhile was staring at her younger brother with a smile _' Gaara I'm so happy for you, now maybe we can really be a family'_

Jiraiya lifted Naruto over his shoulder as Baki did the same " so what do you say we take them back to this kids client, we can treat them there" Baki nodded and they disappeared in a blur of speed.

--

Naruto slowly began to wake and got up from his bed on the floor, Naruto recognized he was back in Noujou's house almost instantly " well it's about time you woke up gaki, you've been out for three days " Naruto looked over and saw Jiraiya standing against the wall " so what's the famous Jiraiya of the Sannin doing watching one of my fights in the middle of nowhere?" Jiraiya smirked

" Would you believe I was just passing through and saw the show?" Naruto gave him a look that said he clearly didn't making Jiraiya sigh " fine old man Sarutobi wanted me to check up on you since you've been gone so long, besides you don't even write to him so he got worried".

Naruto smirked " so he sent you after me? Didn't think he would send a Sannin after me" Jiraiya frown in annoyance " you have any idea how hard you were to track? I had to practically call on every source I had to find you" Jiraiya seemed to take on tears " I couldn't even do any research while I looked for you!!" Naruto looked confused " research?" Jiraiya smiled suddenly " yes for my book!" he produced a orange book from under his shirt " for you see I am the great author of…" Jiraiya didn't even get to finish his words as Naruto pointed at him in shock " Icha Icha Paradise!" Jiraiya stared at Naruto in suspicion " how did you know that was what it was called?"

Naruto pulled his copy from his backpack and showed it to him " I really liked chapter nine the best, the one where the leaf ninja fought the crime boss and rescued the village priestess" Naruto said making Jiraiya smirk almost insanely " oh you're a fan are you?" Naruto nodded his head with a smile before a confused look came on his face.

" Um, what did you mean by research?" Jiraiya smiled and struck a pose with his fist up in the air " to write such a work of art I must capture real life in my books! Only the female form in all its living glory will do!"

Naruto stared at him a moment in confusion before shock over took his face and he pointed at him again " you peeked on women! Your nothing but a pervert! You're an Ero-Sannin!" Jiraiya fell from his pose onto the floor " Don't call me that you gaki! You have no right to call me that!" before it could go any further a familiar face entered the room " your loud" Gaara said as he opened the door making Naruto smile " hey Gaara you feeling better, hope that beating I gave you wasn't too bad" Gaara smirked " I wasn't the one asleep for three days" in a rare moment of humor.

Naruto laughed a bit before Jiraiya cut in " I fixed the problems with his seal, its not as good as yours is but the Shukaku wont be bothering him anymore, he will be able to live an almost normal life now."

Naruto smiled "that's great Gaara " Gaara nodded and looked at Jiraiya " I owe you two a very large debt I don't think I will ever be able to pay". Suddenly another voice was heard " as will I" Noujou said as he walked into the room "hey old man " Naruto said making Noujou smile " you really did give it your all didn't you kid?" Naruto smirked " Naruto Uzumaki doesn't do anything halfway" Noujou smirked " well then when your ready come downstairs I got something to give you. Naruto nodded and after everyone left the room started to change from his bloody, dirty cloths.

--

Naruto walked down stairs in a fresh set of cloths like the one he had on before, his mask put back on his face he met Noujou in the kitchen where a couple scrolls that weren't his " I know you leaf shinobi don't know a lot of lightning, earth, and wind Jutsus so I gathered everything I have from my old life and put it here on the table, hell might even be a forbidden Jutsu in there somewhere" Noujou said making Naruto almost drool at how many Jutsus were on the table before he stopped himself "but Noujou-san these are yours I cant take them " Naruto said making Noujou shake his head " no it's ok, I'm old and these are no use to me besides, there are something I would rather forget about my old life"

Naruto nodded his head slowly in understanding " very well Noujou-san, if you're sure then I accept them" Noujou ppicked up something from behind the desk and held it up to Naruto. It was a sword in a white sheath and as he pulled it out Naruto noticed something about it that was strange " Noujou-san that looks like my sword" Naruto said making hi nod " it is the other half of that sword you carry Naruto, when these swords were made they were actually a pair of swords not one"

Naruto stared at it in surprise " a pair of swords?" Naruto asked as Noujou continued, " these swords are named after the legendary demons that once plagued my village in the ancient past, they are named Hiten and Manten after lightning and thunder" Noujou said with a smile " they were said to be brothers who fought together to slay their enemies and the swords were made from the eldest brothers weapon and even when separated the blades seem to seek each other out."

Naruto looked on as Noujou sheathed the sword " I sold Manten, the blade of the younger brother to pay for my land, now they have found each other again, and I want you to have Hiten along with the scrolls" Naruto looked in shock " old man this is too much I mean all this along with my payment…" Naruto didn't get to finish as Noujou handed him the sword " put them to good use, I don't need them and you do" Noujou said as he left the room. Naruto stared there a moment longer before he smiled.

--

Naruto walked beside Jiraiya as they made their way through the desert, after leaving Noujou's house and parting from the Suna Ninja's, despite Kankuro's demands for another fight and Temari smacking him over the head, they began to walk through the bright sands " so Naruto where are you going to go from here?" Jiraiya asked making Naruto shrug " I don't know really, I wasn't planning on going back to the village till after I was eleven or so, I got time" Jiraiya smirked " well then I got a proposal for you" Jiraiya said making Naruto raise an eye.

" I'm listening" Naruto said with a masked smile.

--

Naruto sighed as he sat at the docks at a Suna port he had separated from Jiraiya a week ago and had decided that now would be a good time to return back to Konoha, he was waiting for his boat to arrive so he could finally get on the way but it seemed that it was a bit late to dock. Naruto heard a commotion with two men and listened in as they spoke

" never seen anything like it in my life, I swear I was going to die and out of nowhere these Ninja jumped form the tree's and beat those bandits into the ground!" the man said with a laugh " and they don't ask for anything in return it was so lucky they were around"

Naruto smirked a bit " hey old guy those Shinobi sound like they're really something" the men looked over at him and smiled " you bet sonny, I swear nobody is a better ninja than … ah what did they call themselves?" the man said rubbing his head before snapping his fingers in thought " oh yeah now I remember, Uzumaki"

Naruto looked at the man in shock before leaping to him and grabbing his shirt almost chocking the man " Where did you meet them?!" Naruto practically yelled as the man looked at him in surprise " uh um I-I-I- met them in the land of whirlpool, s-s-s-said they lived there" the man stuttered as Naruto shook him. Naruto leapt from him and took off from the dock, the boat forgotten even as it docked with the pier; hope leading Naruto into the desert once again.

--

Important information

Yoku Akogi- oc both names mean greed

Tokunouka Noujou – another other both names associated with gardens and plants.

Jutsu info

Kubiwa Kouba no Jutsu – The choking plant technique- C rank capture Jutsu- Naruto's plants abilities allow him to create powerful vines to ensnare his opponents, dependent on his supply of seeds to start the jutsu, useless on adversaries of sizes bigger than average shinobi and stronger than average as vines may break.

Koussei Houou no Jutsu- rebirth of the phoenix technique- A rank Bloodline attack- When possessed by Kaji , Naruto is able to pump an enormous amount of Chakra out, wrapping himself in flames which forms into the shape of a massive bird of fire, Jutsu drains Chakra reserves massively as a result. Naruto must limit use to one or at most three before he suffers Chakra exhaustion.

Shakaku no Jutsu- angel of fire technique – Kaji uses his manipulstion of fire to give him wings of flame and incase his hands in fire. Equivalent to Gaara's second form in power.

Hanatsu konjou no Jutsu- release of the spirit technique- A rank bloodline technique- allows a spirit of Naruto's bloodline to take over his body and use attacks based on that element. Must call out the name of element to be used

Hiai tori no Jutsu- sadness in the heart technique – A rank genjutsu/ ninjutsu - Naruto casts a genjutsu on a target forcing them to face their hearts deepest regrets, fears, and pains. Unlike other genjutsu that needs careful control of chakra to affect a target Naruto focuses chakra into the genjusu, reinforcing it and making it harder to dispel. The more Chakra he uses the stronger the genjutsu is.

Ryuuko no jutsu- dragon and tiger technique- A rank bloodline technique- when in his second form Kaji can use this attack, forming the head of a dragon and tiger from the flames of his hand for a double attack.

Eikoudan no jutsu- Flare bomb technique- c rank close rang bloodline attack- Kaji closes in on an opponent as he gathers fire in his hands and then releases it close to his opponent blinding them temporarily.

Kasen no jutsu- fire arrow technique- c rank fire technique- a Uzumaki original Naruto creates a arrow of flames in his hand and fires it towards his opponent.

Ok everyone there you go, slightly longer than the last one but now its done. I hope this satisfies my readers for a bit, good news is I have the next one planned out a bit so it should be quicker. If anyone can tell me where I got the names for Naruto's swords then you get a cookie I have a final in a major class tomorrow so wish me luck

Look out for the next chapter and remember write a review so I can give you a better story!


	6. Darkness Revealed! Naruto's Return!

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto if I did naruto wouldn't be as dumb, there would be a lot more blood, and he and hinata would be together from day one. I also don't own any anime crossover elements I add in my story. I do however own any techniques and/or ideas I come up with in my story where noted.

Ok everyone here's the next chapter! Yeah I know, this took longer than usual but to be honest I was lazy and real life took over my mind, from school and my new girlfriend to my little brother going off to college and family issues, sigh I blame the economy. Well I hope you enjoy it for the time I missed.

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The great gates of Kanoha stood proudly in the morning light, great barriers to the home of leaf shinobi. High walls protected the vulnerable village within and guarded by Chunin who stood watch at all entrances it is nearly impossible to get in or out without being seen. At least most of the time.

The Chunin guard watched the road in boredom; no one in their right mind would be up this early so he didn't see why it was really necessary to have a watch as the sun rose into the sky and the morning mist filled the air.

Yawning, he thought of his recent reassignment from the Hokage, he had just recently got his job guarding the gate back after being nearly demoted to Gennin, and even though he hadn't he still had to do eight months of D rank missions before he could do even the most basic Chunin tasks. All this started because someone had gotten out of the village on his watch.

He involuntarily shuddered at the thought of the D rank missions he had done and was forbidden to use any Jutsu to help him in the tasks. After that he was still on probation till just a few days ago. He swore to himself he would do everything that it took to avoid another incident like that happening.

He heard someone approaching the gate and looked up, he saw what looked like a boy in a black cloak with two swords crossed behind his back and a straw cone hat walking towards him at an even pace, a strange bit of music coming from a whistle filling the air.

" Halt! State your name and purpose for coming here!" the Chunin said even as the boy kept walking towards him. But the boy seemed to fade as he walked closer not even acknowledging the guards demand, by the time he had reached the Chunin he had disappeared like a ghost right before the Chunins eyes. Blinking a couple of times in wonder the guard pinched himself on the face, and after making sure that he was still awake decided he was seeing things.

If the guard had turned around he would have seen the retreating figure of the boy that had just faded disappear into the streets of the hidden leaf village with a foxes grin on his face.

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Naruto smiled to himself as he walked the morning streets of Kanoha, watching as the various civilians and shinobi went about their morning business. He saw the shop keepers opening up their places of work and the vendors placing their wares out for display, he smelled fresh baked bread in the air as he walked past a bakery and listened to the gossip of the wives on street corners.

Naruto smiled under his mask _' looks a lot has stayed the same since I left'_ Naruto thought as he passed through a crowed of people and watched as some children ran past him on their way to school, no one taking notice of him as he made his way past them_ ' hmm guess they don't know its me, otherwise they would be acting a lot different'_ Naruto thought as he walked up one of the main roads leading to the center of the village

Naruto's train of thought stopped as he stood in front of a flower stand on the corner of the street, his eyes focusing on one single flower among them. Though his face was covered one could tell he was remembering something as his eyes held sadness and remorse in them as he unconsciously reached beneath his shirt and gripped a simple necklace _' I'll keep my word, I'll make you proud'_ Naruto thought before gently releasing the hidden necklace and walking away from the stand and continued into the markets of the village.

Once Naruto had composed himself enough his mind drifted to lighter thoughts he had a choice to make now that he was back. " I wonder what I should do first," Naruto thought out loud to himself as he stopped walking at a crossroad street. Looking around he thought of all the places he should visit and nodding to himself in a decision he started toward the tallest building in the whole village, the Hokage tower.

Naruto was deep in thought as he walked to the tower completely ignoring the people he passed, even as he lightly bumped into someone he just gave a muffled and almost unheard apology before continuing his way to his destination.

The person watched the retreating figure of the unrecognizable boy with a look of wonder as to who he was, she had never seen him before and since he was dressed like a ninja she would have known him from the academy if he attended it.

She saw as her friends walked towards her the way the boy was walking " hey Hinata what's with you?" Kiba asked as he walked up with Akumaru in his coat, with him were Shino, Shikamaru, Choji, Ino, and Sakura " see something interesting you like Hinata?" Ino teased with a smile as she looked back at the retreating boy " wow Hinata way to pick one, he looks almost as good as Sasuke-kun".

A deep blush over took Hinata's face at her friends joke as she stumbled over her words trying to get out an explanation " it… he, um I mean" Hinata said lowering her head a bit " it's just I've never seen him before, and he kind of looks like a ninja" Hinata somewhat whispered making the others look back as the boy mixed in with the crowed

" Your right" Kiba said as he stared intently at the spot the boy had disappeared into the crowed " I actually got a whiff of him as I passed him, Akamaru did too didn't you boy?" he asked getting a yip from the dog in response " he smelled kind of familiar but I cant place him". " You sure about that Kiba?" Sakura asked, " I mean you sure you know him from somewhere?"

Kiba growled slightly in annoyance as he lightly his the side of his head with his fist trying to remember where he had known that scent " believe me when I say I know him from somewhere, but I just can't remember where". Shino was deep in thought at the moment as well " my bugs say his chakra is familiar as well, they tasted what was coming off him as we passed" Ino and Sakura moved slightly farther apart from Shino after his comment making his visible face frown a bit.

" What does it matter?" Choji asked as he munched on a bag of chips " I mean so what if there's someone in the village we don't know? Who cares?" Ino looked torn between annoyed and surprised " Choji you just don't understand" Shikamaru sighed getting everyone's attention " this is too troublesome" he muttered making Ino fully annoyed

" Shikamaru you say everything is troublesome!" Ino practically shouted as they lazy boy just kept his bored expression " because it is, like Choji said it's not our concern, besides if we're late for class Iruka-sensei will be a drag later, so we better get going" Shikamaru said before walking ahead of the group with Choji close behind.

With the others agreeing to the lazy boys statement they continued their way to the school to become future shinobi of their village, even as the girls continued their discussion and teasing of Hinata.

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Naruto was standing in front of the Hokage tower looking up its walls with a slight smirk under his mask. He knew the old man was probably busy with his workload of papers and documents sent to him by his secretary so he needed his own way to get into the tower without being seen by anyone but his favorite Kage.

Making a single handed seal Naruto focused his chakra and then with a masked smirk walked into the wall of the tower seeming to be absorbed by the surface.

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Sarutobi sighed once again as he continued to work on the seemingly endless paperwork that came with the all-important job in the village. If it wasn't bad enough that the papers were already in three large stacks on his desk then the fact he was up so early in the morning was the icing on the cake.

' _Makes me wonder why I wanted this job in the first place, I swear each hokage must have a sucker to pass it off to when they get too old, but no…mine had to be the one that died young and sacrifice himself for the village! Yeah he just wanted out of the paperwork!' _Sarutobi looked up at a picture of his successor with a grin and a chuckle before he continued his labor.

Suddenly Sarutobi stopped writing on the paper before him a frown covering his face as he placed the pen on his desk and stared at the empty room in front of him " I commend you for making it to this office without anyone sensing you, but your far too inexperienced to try to attack me". A voice echoed in the empty room in reply " ah, that's not very nice to say old man" Sarutobi watched as a boy seemed to rise up from the wooden floor, his hat hiding his identity.

Then in a single swift motion they boy raised his hat with one hand and pulled his mask down with the other revealing a wide grin and familiar whisker marks" I come back after all this time and you think I would kill you?" Naruto asked as Sarutobi's face changed from a scowl to a surprised and happy expression " Naruto!!!" Sarutobi shouted as he ran over and enveloped the boy in a hug "look at you, you've grown so much" Naruto grinned at the old mans words, it was true he was just slightly taller than other kids his age, if only just barely.

" Jiraiya said he ran into you but that was a while ago, how have you been?" Naruto smirked and pulled from the aged hokages grasp and placed his mask back in its place " I haven't been too bad, just finished traveling a few places here and there, I'm loads stronger too" Naruto said grinning pumping his arm into the air to emphasize his point.

" That's good to hear" Sarutobi said with a smile before promptly hitting Naruto on the head like he had done so many time when he was younger " don't do it again!" Sarutobi shouted as Naruto held his head

" What the hell old man!" Naruto yelled as he held his head " you deserve that Naruto" Sarutobi said with a look of annoyance " you realize how much trouble you caused, I had to deal with the items you took from the village, punish several people for lack of focus in their duties in the village, and deal with the council later when I explained you had left" the hokage finished while grumbling something that sounded like " and all the extra paperwork"

Naruto grinned rubbing the back of his head " heh heh, sorry old man but you know how it is, needed stuff to get started" Sarutobi gave Naruto an annoyed look before returning back to his desk and giving a serious look to said blond.

" Now then I hope Jiraiya told you I would need you to tell me what you've done all these years when you got back, after all I need to put it into the school and the… council" Sarutobi said making Naruto nod " also I don't know when or where but the council may want to see you as well but for now tell me what's happened to you". Naruto nodded again " ok old man but it will be on my terms, if I feel like I don't want to tell you certain things then I wont".

Sarutobi frowned but with a sigh knowing Naruto wouldn't budge on this agreed, " Fine now lets start with what you know, how much Jutsu you know, your training…" Naruto smiled proudly " well lets see…" Naruto said as he counted on his fingers " I am proficient in a Kenjutsu style and I don't say I am a master of it because I don't have the years of experience to call it that, I also know another style but not as well as the first but I'm practicing those to work that one with the original".

Sarutobi nodded in though as Naruto raised a second finger " I took a look at the academy style Taijutsu while traveling but I found it wasn't the best thing to use in a real fight for me, so instead to learned a few different styles that suited me, right now I know four styles which let me adapt to any situation, and I've worked hard to able to switch to any of the four at a moments notice" Naruto as Sarutobi thought to himself _' hehe well now Gai will be happy when he finds out Lee has some competition now'_

Naruto smirked as he raised another finger " Genjutsu was a pain in the ass but I figured it out a bit, my chakra tends to overfeed the illusion and I cant hold small amounts unless I have near perfect concentration so I had to figure a way around that" Naruto's grin almost split his face " I found a few Genjutsu in places that I visited that actually grow stronger the more you put in so I base mine around those, it doesn't matter how much I put in because it only helps me to push as much as I can into it"

Sarutobi grinned seeing Naruto's logic _' so despite the fact he cant do regular Genjutsu he can create unique ones and with his enormous chakra capacity he could create some very convincing illusions …interesting'_ Naruto smirked " I can also detect most genjutsu and dispel them " Sarutobi nodded silently telling Naruto to continue.

Naruto counted off another finger " ok for jutsu I know a ton of them, the academy ones will be no problem for me now and not including Jutsu for my bloodline, ones I came up with, and the ones from the forbidden scroll I know about thirty-five C ranked Jutsu, twenty-nine B ranked Jutsu, nineteen A rank Jutsu and five S ranked Jutsu's though I'm limited in any higher than some A rank jutsu because of how much I need to put into them. I also created a few… personal Jutsu while I was away"

Sarutobi frowned making Naruto sweat a bit " and the forbidden Jutsu?" Sarutobi asked sternly making Naruto flinch for a second before sighing " I learned the clone based Jutsu easy enough, a few of the offensive and defensive Jutsu gave me trouble in the beginning but I figured them out".

Naruto gave Sarutobi a serious look of his own " I finished learning them all by about three months ago but if you must know I haven't used any except the clone Jutsu's" Sarutobi thought to himself as he placed his pipe in his mouth " hmmm… well no use getting upset about it now, what's done is done, I suppose I can overlook it this once" Sarutobi said with a warning glance making Naruto grin sheepishly and rub the back of his head.

" I haven't told the council about that little tidbit of your leaving the village seeing as I would only cause you and me more problems than we need as well". Sarutobi said as suddenly he became much more serious " your punishment would be far worse if they knew that about the night you left" Sarutobi said getting a nod from Naruto who knew how much a favor this really was.

" Now Naruto I have something very important to talk to you about, you might want to take a seat as this might take some time" Sarutobi gestured to one of the seats in his office which Naruto sat in.

" Now before you left the village and just now even you said something about a bloodline?" Sarutobi asked making Naruto shrug " I think it's better to show you old man" Naruto said holding his hand to the hokage as if holding something before a small fireball sprung to life in his hand, slightly shocking the hokage who wasn't expecting such a display.

Naruto let the fireball die in his hands before continuing, " I can also control water, earth, lightning, plants, and air" Naruto said making the Sarutobi stare at him a good minute just to absorb what he had heard before sighing to himself " well now this is interesting, you have a name for this bloodline of yours?" Naruto smirked

" Butai Ketsueki" Sarutobi smirked " hmm interesting name Naruto, element blood, short but sweet and to the point" then Sarutobi gave an evasive question to Naruto hoping to get some information " Naruto how have those nightmares been since I last saw you?" Naruto smirked knowing full well what the old man was asking " the Kyuubi doesn't really bother me that much anymore" Naruto said nearly making the old man fall from his chair.

" H-how? When?" Sarutobi stuttered making Naruto chuckle " well I wont tell too much because then it will show who I trained with but I will tell you the bastard makes for some interesting company, always seems to have something to say about how a demon would do something or make a wise ass remark" Naruto told Sarutobi about his meditation and how the Kyuubi was the source of his bloodline, he told him of his first kill as a ninja in defending a young girls innocence from a bandit, and a few of the places he had been and the things he had seen. Sarutobi could only sit and listen as Naruto highlighted his travel but was growing prouder with each short tale he told.

" And then Jiraiya snuck off to peek on some girls in the hot spring, though I made him regret leaving me when he's supposed to be teaching," Naruto said snickering " I used one of my personal Jutsu and taught him not to slack off". Sarutobi was interested, what kind of a technique would make someone like Jiraiya pay attention to someone more than women? " Naruto can you demonstrate this technique of yours, if it wont destroy my office that is" Naruto nodded and walked to the center of the room " ok old man but I'm warning you right now, this is a killer" Naruto said with mirth in his voice. Sarutobi knew whatever Naruto was about to do was a down right trick from his voice, not forgetting how much a prankster he was before he left.

Naruto made a hand sign and announced the Jutsu " Oiroke no Jutsu!" a cloud of smoke filled the room and Sarutobi came face to face with his downfall. The smoke began clearing to reveal a very beautiful and nude teenage girl, with a perfect figure and a large chest that was barely covered by one of her arms. Drops on water sparkled in the light around her as well as ran over her revealed skin adding further luster to her appearance.

Long blond hair that was tied into two pigtails down her back reaching her backside, her smile on her adorable face was so alluring but her eyes held nothing but innocence in them.

" Please Sandaime-sama don't look at little Naruko so much, its embarrassing" the female said in the cutest possible voice as a blush rose on her cheeks and she put a finger to her mouth before saying in a almost erotic tone as she sucked the finger lightly" I might lose it if you keep looking".

Then Hiruzen Sarutobi, nick named the professor by some, the god of ninja by others, who had reighned over the village hidden in the leaves for a good portion of his life stared in shock before screaming as blood flew from his nose and he fell from his chair to the floor, his body twitching with the look of shock still on his face, unconscious.

A puff of smoke a second later and an untransformed Naruto stared at his handiwork before shaking his head " I'm really disappointed, Jiraiya I was expecting but you old man?" Naruto disappointedly sighed, putting a hand on his neck as he rubbed it and thought out loud to himself " Is it that my Jutsu is too effective or that everyone is really a pervert deep down?" Naruto asked no one in particular looking at the ceiling as the third hokage came around and regained consciousness

After recomposing himself and stemming the flow of blood from his nose with some tissues Sarutobi walked up to the young blond shinobi " ahem so Naruto" the third began as he placed his pipe back into his mouth, how exactly is THAT technique a punishment for Jiraiya, I would think he would enjoy something like…that" the aged hokage finished lamely a blush to his winkled face.

" True but I didn't use it on him like I did you" Naruto said grinning under his mask" I use it to appear with a towel on and scream pervert at the top of my lungs, then its up to the resident females to do the dirty work" Naruto said making Sautobi nod " hmm I see. I must say that new Jutsu of yours is most impressive, very effective and highly original" Sarutobi said before frowning and hitting him on the head for the second time "DON'T DO IT AGAIN!"

Naruto held his head and for the second time that morning he was cursing the old mans strength despite his age before looking up at the man he thought of as a grandfather " yeah ok old man, and before you say anything I wont tell anyone what a pervert you really are" Naruto said making Sarutobi cough and look away in a bit of embarrassment " so Naruto" the third said trying to change the subject a bit " any other stories you want to tell me while you're here, or maybe you have another Jutsu you want to tell me about".

Naruto looked at the clock on the wall and suddenly looked a bit worried " umm sorry old man but I'm going to have to cut this short, I need to get some ramen from an old favorite and to get the first day of my last year started"

Sarutobi smiled " well Naruto first you need to do a short test to prove your up to speed in the academy and fill out a bit of paperwork before I can send you there" Naruto gave a disbelieving look " your kidding right?" Sarutobi shook his head

" It's a short one Naruto and no getting out of it either, it's required for trying to do what you are right now" Sarutobi said returning to his seat before pulling a paper from his desk and giving Naruto it along with a pen " now then just answer the questions on that paper and fill out the information needed on the other and you can…" the paper was suddenly pushed back into his hands " done old man" Naruto said smirking.

Looking at the paper Sarutobi chuckled seeing all the answers were right and on the other paper was filled out properly "hmmm cant wait to get back to the academy can you Naruto?" Sarutobi smiled putting the papers on his desk before pulling out a scroll from under the desk.

"Ok Naruto here" Sarutobi said tossing the scroll to Naruto who caught it in mid air, looking at it with a questioning look Sarutobi explained " that note just says you passed the test and are allowed to attend this years graduating class" then the aged hokage got up and walked to the balcony. Naruto fallowed him and together they looked out over the village " by the way Naruto I want you bring Iruka here after class, say about eight at night, that way we can talk more about what we went over ok?"

Naruto nodded his head and as soon as he placed his hat on his head handed the hokage one of the two scrolls in his pocket " these are from me old man, one is the stuff I barrowed from the village minus the weapons and stuff I used, the other" Naruto said as he handed the other one in his hand to the hokage " is mission completion statements from while I was gone".

Sarutobi chuckled knowing Naruto was expecting full payment for whatever he did in his time away, it was one of the things he had told Naruto before he left about being a ninja. " By the way old man is there anyway to keep what we talked about a secret for now?" Naruto asked a bit seriously " do me a favor and just don't put the information through until we talk again later alright?" Sarutobi nodded slowly making Naruto smile.

Naruto jumped up on the railing of the balcony " Naruto" Sarutobi said getting Naruto's attention as he held out a few bills and coins in his free hand and a key in the other " the keuy is to your old apartment, Iruka and I made sure it was taken care of while you were gone, and here have a big Naruto special on me, I'm sure you've earned it. Class starts in a hour but you can be a bit late today" Sarutobi said with a grin as Naruto took the money and nodded with a masked smile before he jumped from the balcony and in a burst of speed disappeared in mid air. Sarutobi watched as Naruto began jumping from roof to roof as he ran from the tower and into the village.

Sarutobi chuckled as he returned to his desk and looked at the scroll that held Naruto's missions " well now…" Sarutobi said opening the scroll a bit surprised to find a seal set to go as soon as the scroll opened, it exploded in a puff of smoke the sound of summonings filled the room.

When the smoke cleared the hokage's desk was overflowing with new papers from the scroll. The old man could swear he could hear laughter from a certain blond in the distance as his eye twitched slightly as some of the papers fell to the floor " I believe he may be trying to get me to give him this job as fast as I can" Sarutobi muttered as he grudgingly began the work of trying to separate the papers into stacks to make it at least a bit easier.

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Naruto smiled as he jumped from roof to roof with his favorite ramen shop in sight, the Ichiraku seemed to be doing well despite his absence and he wondered idly for a moment if Teuchi and Ayame had added any new choices to the menu before jumping to the street below and landing in front of the open bar like restaurant. Naruto moved the cloth covering in this way with one hand and slipped to one of the open seats quietly almost unnoticed by Ayame as she cleaned the counter.

" Oh hello " Ayame said in her cheerful voice as she saw the first customer of the day walk in " welcome to Ichiraku ramen, what will you be having?" Naruto smiled under his mask and put a large amount of money on the counter, not all of it from the hokage. "Give me seven Naruto specials and a order of hot ginseng tea" Naruto said, revealing who he was by pulling his mask down to around his neck showing his smile " I've missed the taste of home".

" Naruto!!!" Ayame yelled in happy surprise as she reached over the counter and grabbed him in a hug before yelling into the kitchen " dad come quick! Naruto's come back!!!" Teuchi looked from out the doorway and smiled " Naruto! When did you get back?" Naruto smiled " just a couple hours ago, had to stop at the old mans and let him know I was back, now how bout that ramen?" Naruto said making Teuchi smirk

" Sure thing but first…" The chef said before whacking Naruto on the head with the wooden spoon he had picked up from the counter " Itai! What the hell!" Naruto shouted tearing the hat from his head and rubbing the spot that was struck " first the hokage now you too old man?" Naruto shouted as Teuchi left to make the ramen.

Ayame giggled a bit " that's what happens when you act like a baka Naruto" she teased waving a finger at him like a scolded puppy making Naruto grumble about how sore his head would be later if this kept happening. Soon Teuchi came out with a hot bowl of ramen specially made to satisfy an appetite like Naruto's.

Naruto wasted no time and almost attacked the ramen in hunger even as Teuchi put another one down in front of him "Naruto, did you like your time away?" Ayame asked making Naruto nod as he slurped up the last noodles in the bowl before grabbing the next one " yeah it was awesome, but I really missed the place, no one makes better ramen than you guys believe me it wasn't the same"

Teuchi smirked " that's good to know Naruto," the chef said before smirking deviously "so tell me did you find a girlfriend while you were away?" the old chef teased making Naruto choke on the broth he was swallowing before he replied red faced " what the hell is that supposed to mean?!" Ayame giggled again " oh dear you're going to be such a heart breaker now that you're back Naruto" Ayame replied getting a sour look from the blond before her

" I just can't win" Naruto grumbled with a sigh before returning to his mea, however Ayame noted he act with a bit less enthusiasm since they had made the joke, before long all seven bowls were stacked and empty of their contents. Naruto sat there for a while just talking with two of his precious people about various things that had happen both to Naruto and them while he had been away. Naruto seemed to brighten again as he talked to them and told them a few short stories of his time in the other nations and the things he had seen.

Naruto eventually decided he had better be going or he would miss the entire first day of class, with a short goodbye and a promise to be back soon Naruto placed his hat back on his head and jumped onto the buildings, running towards his new target, the ninja academy. It took Naruto only about ten minutes to get there " hmm I guess I need to get some new weights these ones aren't enough anymore" Naruto said to himself as he walked into the doors of the academy.

Naruto found a class placement on the wall and after briefly scanning it he walked directly to the class he needed. Naruto had seen many familiar names on the list, he remembered most of them from before he had left the village, he remembered a few of the fun times he had with a handful of students and hoped that he could be their friend again after being gone for so long.

Naruto stood outside the door listening on the class for a moment, it seemed the teacher had just gotten there and had been late for some reason and was taking his sweet time with some speech. Naruto thought about how he wanted to show up in class, in the end he decided less was more in this and knocked on the door loud enough to be heard and soon the teacher called for him to come in.

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Iruka smiled as he stared at his charges, this would be the last year he had to teach them but watching them come this far brought a smile to his face nonetheless, he knew those before him would be people to be proud of in the future, whether they became shinobi or not. " Hello everyone I'm glade to see so many of you have returned to finish your training" Iruka began as he recited another speech about being a shinobi and the responsibility that comes with it. Most of the class was either paying half attention while talking amongst themselves; one of the topics floating in the class was about the strange boy who was in the village.

" So did you see his face?" one girl asked as Hinata shook her head " no… he wore a mask" she said quietly, a small part of her was a bit irked that Ino had told the entire female population of the class about their trip here and thus putting her in the spotlight. " Aw man, that's no fun" another girl huffed as Kiba snickered overhearing their conversation and whispered to Shino as he motioned to Sasuke who was sitting in the corner of the classroom with his thumb.

" Well at least now we know why Hinata doesn't go after Sasuke like every other girl, she likes them dark and mysterious not dark and broody" Akamaru barked in agreement while Shino nodded his head " it would seem that emo is the new helpless victim" Shino said making Kiba looked at him like he had grown a second head " was that a joke?" Kiba asked in disbelief.

Shino merely adjusted his glasses and replied, " I can be quite humorous when I want to be" with that said he turned back to Iruka as he kept going on with his speech with his dog loving friend giving him strange looks. Meanwhile Shikamaru and Choji just sat in the classroom quietly snoozing and eating a bag of chips respectively, Sasuke sat brooding about ways to get stronger and cast dark thoughts about his brother, unnerving the two other male students near him to no end.

Sakura and Ino had joined in the discussion about the new boy in the village as Iruka finally finished his speech " ok now class lets get right down to work now…" Iruka said as knocking on the door cut him off " come in" he yelled.

As the door opened a boy walked in and had many different reactions, many of the students stared as the boy made his way to the front, the more notable ones were the ones the boy had passed earlier as Sakura and Ino told the other girls that this was who they had been talking about, Shikamaru stared at the boy as if analyzing him before muttering "troublesome" and laying his head back down on the desk.

Choji kept eating his chips as he watched the new kid, Shino and Kiba along with Akamaru kept trying to find out who he was with their clan abilities, Sasuke watched with mild interest seeing as he looked at least a bit strong, Hinata kept looking down while the girls gossiped about him and giggles broke out over how she was reacting and who he might be.

Then again allot of girls in the class were giving this strange new boy certain looks that if a certain icy kunoichi saw would make her suddenly very upset and prone to using sharp pointy weapons. A few blushing faces and hearty eyes fallowed Naruto as walked down the steps.

Naruto didn't say a word as he walked right up to Iruka, not giving anyone the slightest clue to who he was. " Can I help you?" Iruka asked as Naruto handed him the scroll the hokage had given him. Iruka took it and after looking over the scroll he nodded to himself before looking over the class " everyone we have a new student who will be joining us for this year and the graduation".

This surprised everyone as one of the students voiced their opinion "Iruka-sensei why doesn't he have to work his way up like the rest of us?" Iruka knew this was coming " because he has passed the necessary test to see if he belongs here, believe me when I say it was not made easy to join this far into the school's curriculum" Iruka said before turning to the new student " I'm sorry but can you introduce yourself to the class? The hokage didn't write down who you were"

Naruto smirked a little under his mask, seemed the old man wanted this one to be a surprise for everyone and with a slight nod walked to the front of the class. Naruto stared at everyone in front of him " I must say I am happy to be here, I hope that I will learn much about you all and we can become friends, though I already know quite a bit about much of the class already" Naruto said making everyone look at him weird " after all I have been here before".

Iruka was surprised " wait, what you mean you've been here before?" Iruka asked making Naruto smile and with a shrug he continued " it is as I said, I was here but then I left, and now I am back" Naruto with one hand swiftly took his hat from his head revealing the blond hair hidden beneath " the one and only Uzumaki Naruto at your service! Miss me?" Naruto shouted making everyone stare at him wide eyed in shock.

" N-Naruto?!" Iruka said walking up to him " Naruto turned and smiled at his favorite teacher " how's it going Iruka-sensei?" Naruto asked giving his brother figure a peace sign with his free hand and a Kakshi like smile making Iruka smile too before swiftly swinging his fist to hit Naruto, only to hit air.

Iruka and the class stared at where Naruto had been just standing " Sorry Iruka-sensei!!!" Naruto yelled getting everyone's attention " I got hit by the old man and Teuchi earlier and I don't think a third time will help". _'So fast!' _Was the thought running through everyone's head. He had somehow moved from the front of the class to an open seat with the other students.

This seat, whether by chance or on purpose had placed him next to the group of girls that had just been talking about him a second ago. More importantly, he was sitting near Shino and Kiba, behind Shikamaru and Choji, and close to the heiress of the most powerful clan in the village and her two best friends.

Iruka smirked "well Naruto, if I can't hit you I can still test you" Iruka said making Naruto slightly nervous at the look in Iruka's eye" hmm well you could do that" Naruto said dismissingly as he shrugged " alright then Naruto your going to stay after class got it?" Iruka said and after Naruto nodded Iruka turned back to the board " ok now class, lets get right into our work with ninja tactics involving traps and obstacles…" Iruka began to say making Naruto sigh, knowing in advance this was going to be a long day.

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Naruto sighed again quietly for the tenth time that half-hour alone; everything Iruka had gone over he had learned from while away from the village or had no use on the battlefield, honestly although he respected the past hokage's and their achievements, he doubted knowing trivia about them would save him if a kunai was speeding towards his head.

Naruto listened halfheartedly as Iruka told students the different kinds of traps and their uses _' this is cruel and unusual punishment, I mean when Zabuza-sensei taught me about traps he had me run through a forest littered with them and I had to learn on my feet, and Ero-Sennin at least he kept it interesting and I got some experience from it' _Naruto glanced about the room I hopes of reliving some of his boredom.

Naruto saw how Kiba and, from what he could tell, Shino were looking at him from their places next to him, smirking under his mask and picked up his pencil, seeing them watch what he was doing he began to tap the table. After a second the bug and dog user realized what he was doing, he was talking in code _' see something you like dog breathe?' _

Naruto typed snickering at his joke as Kiba tapped back _'heh you wish, you remember me?'_ Naruto smirked _' hard to forget someone who smells like you do Kiba' _fighting the urge to tackle Naruto to the floor Kiba asked the question most prominent in his mind_ 'what happened to you while you were away? Your completely different' _Naruto looked at him questioningly _' so I changed my clothes, not that big a deal'_.

Before Kiba could react Shino tapped lightly _' I believe Kiba means as to your increased abilities, as well as your look Naruto, that was no small feat avoiding Iruka-sensei like that' _Naruto thought a moment before tapping back_ ' hmm, I didn't even think about it, I guess a couple years of life and death missions just makes it instinct'_ Kiba and Shino glanced at each other wondering just what the hell Naruto had been doing _' but enough about me' _Naruto tapped _' tell me what's happed while I was away'._

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For the next hour the three had been talking in code sharing a bit of history between each other and about the village. Naruto was surprised to find out about how not long after he left Sasuke's brother had massacred the entire clan leaving only Sasuke behind alive. Naruto had started to feel bad for the Uchiha until Kiba and Shino started to tell him about his new outlook on life. Needless to say Naruto found Sasuke's ' I'm a lone avenger and need no one but power' outlook on life to be nothing short of a pain in the ass.

'_Great, now I'm going to be stuck with the pain in the ass Uchiha unless I really buckle down in my work' _Naruto tapped making Kiba and Shino nod _' by the way' _Kiba tapped out _' you might want to dress a bit differently, the girls here like the dark mysterious ones like Sasuke and you now that you look like that' _Naruto almost fell over after being compared to the Uchiha but instead replied _' Kiba I dress like this because of my training and it looks cool on me, if I get set up as a dark mysterious ninja it will only help me, besides the difference between me and Sasuke is I don't have a ten foot pole up my ass'_ .

Shikamaru who had been listening in on the tapping behind him snorted quietly to Naruto's remark and seeing them look at him Shikamaru tapped _' agreed'_. Naruto was enjoying his 'conversation' with his old school buddies… until he felt a familiar feeling coming to him making him frown a bit. " Kuso" Naruto said out loud getting the attention of everyone close to him until it happened.

A sudden explosion of smoke filled the room making a few students shout and scream out, Iruka although surprised was yelling for everyone to calm down as the smoke cleared revealing a slightly pissed looking Naruto as he was sporting two new additions to his head, one orange and one yellow toad. " Hey hey kid long time no see!" the orange toad said making Naruto grunt in annoyance as the other toad said, " brother Gamakichi we were here yesterday".

The students whispered about the talking frogs as they watched how the strange animals kept their conversation going " hey Naruto, you have any snacks?" the yellow toad asked making the orange toad groan " Gamatatsu, you always think with your stomach!" Kiba leaned over and whispered to Naruto " hey Naruto, these guys with you or something" making Naruto nod slightly " unfortunately they are" Naruto remarked as they leapt from his head to the desk.

" Hey kid where are we now? This is no where near as exciting as that gambling town we were in yesterday!" Gamakichi said before looking at the surrounding students " though I gotta say this is a new one, since when do you train with the small fry's? " Gamakichi continued making Naruto look at them in a way that said clearly now was not the time " I'm not here for you guy's amusement " Naruto dryly commented before knocking both toad's on the head " you guys are summons! So come WHEN your SUMMONED and not at any other time!" Naruto almost yelled.

The two toads rubbed their heads where small lumps were growing " fine kid, but just for that you've lost our great company for the rest of the day!" Gamakichi said in a toad equivalent of a bad mood before exploding in smoke again " be sure to have some tasty snacks next time Naruto!" Gamatatsu said before like his brother disappearing in a cloud of smoke.

" God damn toads" Naruto muttered quietly before looking at Iruka " sorry Iruka-sensei, those two have the habit of popping up when I need them the least" Naruto apologized as Iruka turned back to the lesson with a single thought in his head _'if he has the toad summons then he must have been with Jiraiya-sama'._

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Iruka had announced lunch and the future hopeful ninja were enjoying their break. Although many of the students were actively spending their break watching Naruto with interest as he spent his break up in the arm of a tree reading a book.

Naruto ignored them for the most part with the occasional glance at some of the students, but when he heard the sounds of giggling he looked up to see some of the girls from the class gathered together occasionally looking his way and giggling, he counted those he recognized and went over them in his head _' lets see…theres Haruno Sakura the one I had a crush on, I remember she was the smartest in class when I left, though she lacked dexterity in the physical aspect, Yamanaka Ino who specialized in her clans mind jutsu and possible slightly better physically than Sakura was, and then there was Hinata Hyuuga the quiet one, she would do well if she wasn't so withdrawn, though she seems to have gotten over that.'_

Naruto ended his mental list as he heard the giggling again as he looked up and saw the group of girls, including the three he went over in his mind staring at him again, Naruto gave a very Kakashi like smile and waved at them getting giggles and a few blushes from the group, those of the Yamanaka and Hyuuga among them.

' _Well now I think I'm going to like it here now' _Naruto thought as he flipped the page, he was too much into his new book of advanced tracking that he didn't even notice as someone walked up to him until he shouted to him " hey dobe!" Naruto looked down to see Sasuke Uchiha looking up at him " get down here, I have something I need to ask you" Naruto looked at Sasuke a moment longer before turning back to his book " I'm in the middle of something, maybe later" Naruto said turning the page in his book. The ruckus being caused by the yelling was attracting the attention of everyone who was having their break.

Sasuke flinched in annoyance but quickly hid it " now Naruto!" Sasuke shouted. Naruto stayed there in the tree a moment longer before sighing, " I'm not going to get a moments peace am I?" Naruto said to himself before closing his book and standing up on the branch " fine but it better be damn important" Naruto said before walking down the tree.

The rest of the student s watched in surprise as Naruto walked down the tree vertically as if on a stroll before standing in front of Sasuke. " Well Uchiha? What is so damn important that you felt the need to interrupt my reading?" Naruto asked in a bored tone that had the undertone of annoyance. Whether Sasuke noticed it or not he didn't acknowledge it " fight me" Sasuke said getting into his clans style making Naruto raise an eyebrow " you have got to be kidding me" Naruto muttered before turning away from Sasuke and walking away towards the academy.

" Naruto!" Sasuke yelled " are you so cowardly that you wont fight me?" Sasuke taunted hoping to incite the blonde into fighting him like he used to before he left. Naruto however just stopped and turned to look at Sasuke uninterestedly" I have no desire to show off my skills, make you look like a fool, or feed fire to that already impressive ego you have made since I left Uchiha" Naruto said pulling his book out again and opening to the page he was on " we will have plenty of chances to fight during the academy year and right now making you eat dirt is not on my list of things to do". A few of the male students snickered as they watched Naruto put Sasuke in his place.

Sasuke was not happy about being talked to like a child; Naruto the dobe of the class who had disappeared years ago was suddenly talking to him like he was his better. Sasuke glared at the blond as he walked away into the academy, but Sasuke's temper simmered as he thought over Naruto's words.

There would be plenty of chances to fight him in the academy, many chances to see how strong he was and the blond had become, how close he was to his brother. So for now at least, he would let this pass.

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Naruto smiled under his mask, it was almost time for the day at school to end _'great, now I just got to last a year and I can really have some fun, until then I better keep my power on a tight leash, don't want to hurt the others too seriously, or show too much to peeping eyes'._

"Naruto" Iruka called making him look up at his teacher " before we leave I want you to answer this pop question" Iruka said making a few kids groan thinking Naruto wouldn't know thus making them have to stay longer. Iruka ignored the sounds and pointed to a typical map designed to test a young shiobi about strategy and planning.

This particular one had a large blue line representing a river cutting it vaguely in half before reaching a mountain formation on the right side, various brown lines meaning roads and went about the map between the river and two big squares meaning towns on each end of the map, all of the rest was green meaning forests, a feature that stood out was a red line across the river representing a bridge.

" Naruto your leading a group of shinobi to intercept a convoy of a enemy force, this force is traveling from the top town to the bottom, give me your best plan of action you can take to succeed" Iruka said giving a example mission."

Naruto stared at the map a moment analyzing it carefully before nodding to himself and turning to Iruka " the best course of action would be to lay a trap for the convoy in the mountains" Naruto said making one student laugh " why would they go through the mountains? The bridge is far easier"

Naruto smirked " first my team would head to the bridge, and destroy it, if it weak enough it would be best to use high level water or earth Jutsu's to destroy it and make it look like a freak accident of nature caused it, then the only other visible way to the village is through the mountains".

Naruto pointed to the map" once there it would be easy to ambush from up in the mountains, a few earth attacks and parts of it could come down on top of them perhaps giving us better chances of success, then all that would be necessary is cleaning up the battle scene" Naruto finished making everyone look at him in shock " Naruto you just gave me a chunin level answer to my question" Iruka said making Naruto smirk under his mask.

" Well if you gave me more information like my supposed team, the enemy strength and our supplies I would give you a better answer, but with what I had that was the best I could give" Naruto shrugged making Kiba snicker and a few girls in the class think to themselves _'he's so smart'_.

Naruto heard as the bell rang signaling the end of the day after he and Iruka finished their little exchange, but unlike the rest of the students he stayed in his seat, even as the rest of them gathered their things and filed out of the classroom.

Soon it was empty except for Naruto and a smiling Iruka " so Naruto, no clever tricks to get away? No long chase through the village?" Iruka asked making Naruto laugh a bit "I figured I would give you a break since it's the first day I got back, besides you need to get used to running after me again".

Iruka laughed loudly " well I don't know about that but it's good to see your taking this seriously" Iruka said before standing in front of Naruto " well now that was quit the stunt you pulled Naruto, I think you might start having as many girls after you as Sasuke does if you keep up what you just did answering my question like that" Naruto smirked " what can I say? Girls like a mystery, and boy am I one huh?" Naruto joked making Iruka smirk " too true, now get out of here, I got papers to grade before you come back tomorrow"

"What about that test you were going to give me?" Naruto asked before a sharp look came to his eyes " or was that last question the test?" Iruka sighed realizing his little trick was up " you got me Naruto, so now that my little game is up how about you get out of here huh?" Iruka asked smirking as Naruto nodded.

Naruto was about to leave the room before he called back " Iruka-sensei, do you know anyone who knows about good weights for training? Mine are feeling a little light" Naruto asked getting Iruka to scratch his head in thought " hmm well there's a Jonin named Might Gai who trains with them and he would know where the best are sold, I would ask him, he's usually in one of the training fields so I would start there, just listen for loud shouting of youth or his name".

Naruto nodded hesitantly thinking to himself that this man sounded weird for someone at the position of Jonin, then again Jiraiya was a sennin and look how he acted." Thanks Iruka-sensei, also the old man said he wanted us to meet at the tower at eight, I'm going to go train a bit before that ok?" Naruto said making Iruka nod as his student left the room.

" Naruto" Iruka said smiling " I think things are going to be interesting with you back".

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As Naruto left the building he was unaware as one young kunoichi watched him from behind a tree as he walked from the school and into the town " Naruto-kun" Hinata said quietly as her old crush she had thought she would never see again after he left walked away. " Well are you just going to sit there all day Hinata?" a voice asked behind her making her jump before realizing it was Ino and Sakura.

" Ino…Sakura...um…what are you doing here?" Hinata asked quietly making them smile " oh just planning on fallowing Naruto like you are, I'm curious what happened to him, after all its not everyday some can answer a question Iruka gives like he did" Ino said as Sakura nodded.

"I want to know how he knew the answer to that question!" Sakura added making Hinata nervous as her little plan was exposed and how they had forced their way into her little trailing of her crush" oh…um...well ok" Hinata said knowing it would only be worse to try to stop Ino and Sakura knowing how determined and persistent they could be.

The three girls tracked Naruto as he walked through the village, Naruto himself was vaguely aware he was being tailed though he couldn't tell who it was. He decided since he didn't think whoever was trailing him was going to attack him he would just ignore them for now. He was too preoccupied with finding the training area he was looking for to care anyway.

Hinata, Sakura and Ino watched as Naruto walked into a training area known for it's waterfall fed river, it was a good place to train for medium level shinobi since the limited amount of ground forced fights to travel to the river.

The girls were quick to hide themselves in the bushes after Naruto looked in their direction, as he was about to enter the grounds. They watched as Naruto looked around some more behind him before he shrugged, and walked deeper into the training field after seeing no one behind him.

" That was a close one!" Ino said quietly making Hinata and Sakura nod in agreement " hurry up! We're going to lose him!" Sakura whispered as the three crawled though the bushes in search of their target. The sounds of fast moving water reached their ears as they reached the very center of the training field. There hey came to a sight they had not expected to see.

A blue haired Naruto stood atop the wide river barefooted seemingly floating on the surface, most of his clothing piled next to a tree so he only wore his mask and long black pants, and holding a large trident in his hands. Seemingly focused completely on the waterfall, the possessed Naruto didn't see he had an audience as he focused his power into the current of water before him.

A sudden explosion of water made the girls jump as heads of dragons created from the waterfall charged Mashimizu roaring as they sped at him. Mashimziu parried and dodged them as his own attacks kept coming at him with the possibility of injuring him, Hintata, Ino, and Sakura watch speechlessly as the Naruto they had fallowed seemed to dance atop the river in a dance with the water around him all the while doing things they didn't think someone their age could possibly do.

Mashimizu after a good fifteen minutes of this exercise thrusted his trident as the last water dragon charge him, spearing its head and causing it to explode as a wave of water flew up the waterfalls face, before washing into the air. As the water rained back down over the field Mashimizu stood still as the water from fell on him watching the sky a moment.

" I cant believe how strong Naruto is" Sakura whispered wide eyed as they watched the finale of his training " what happened to him while he was away?" " What I want to know is what did he go through to get to look like that!" Ino said grinning at what Naruto had become since he left. '_If he looked like this now'_ Ino thought before she giggled quietly as she tried to imagine what he would be like in a few years, " hey Hinata do you…Hinata?" Ino asked looking at where she was, apparently the sight of a half clothed Naruto wet with water was more than enough to overload her as she lay there bright red and glowing like a neon sign " Naruto-kun…" Hinata mumbled happily in her unconscious state.

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" Well now Naruto certainly has come a long way hasn't he?" Sarutobi asked as his crystal ball with the assembled shinobi council and high-level ninja, notable clans such as the Hyuuga, Inuzuka, Aburame and the famous Ino-Shika-Cho clan trio were present in the room, His old teammates and Danzo stood along with the most powerful ninja from Kakshi and Asuma to Anko and Ibiki stood watching as the images flashed across the crystal. Their purpose for being there was to determine the fate of the young Uzumaki since his return.

Asuma Sarutobi took a puff of his cigarette before saying " he reminds me of another mask wearing ninja we all know, don't you agree Kakashi?" Asuma asked getting a shrug from the silver haired ninja " are you trying to imply something Asuma?" Kakshi asked boredly as he took out his book. Kurenai sighed, " cant you do two do those disgusting habits somewhere else?" She said in an irritated tone making the other two Jonin shrug.

" Smoking isn't a habit it's a lifestyle, means you're a man" Asuma replied taking a puff of the lit stick in between his finger as Kakashi turned a page in his book " and all I'm doing is enjoying some fine literature" Kakashi stated watching as the boy finished his exercises.

Ignoring the conversation Sarutobi focused his crystal that showed as the possessed Naruto walked back onto land before manipulating the water off of him, making dry once again. Holding he large orb of water over the river Mashimizu let it fall back into the river before picking up his clothing and placing them on.

Once that was done Mashimizu held his trident out and as he changed back to Naruto. it glowed blue as it formed back into its original shape, Naruto's twin swords. After sheathing them Naruto began walking from the training field, and a minute after he was gone the three hidden girls walk from their hiding place with Hinata being dragged by Ino and Sakura who ran off getting some chuckles and a few shakes of the head from various shinobi.

" Yep just like old times, remember when Kakashi was in the academy?" Asuma asked getting a vigorous nod from Gai " His fires of youth drew many a lovely girl at that time!" Gai shouted before tears swelled in his eyes " but his fires of youth have been diminished by his most unyouthful habit!" Gai cried getting some sighs and odd looks from the surrounding group.

" Well now Gai at least Lee now has someone who might match his ' fires of youth' don't you think?" Inoichi asked causing Gai to laugh loudly " INDEED!!!! NOW MY LEE WILL TRUELY REACH THE PINNACLE OF HIS YOUTH! WITH A RIVAL LIKE NARUTO MY LEE'S FLAMES WILL BURN LIKE THE SUN!" he yelled in his excitement making everyone sweat drop at the strange actions of their fellow Jonin.

Saruobi cleared his throat getting the attention of the assembly" Well now it goes without saying that this new bloodline Naruto has is indeed powerful, it could well be the strongest bloodline we might have if he learns to control it fully" Sarutobi said looking over to the Shinobi council made up of the clan heads and important figure heads in the village. Pinnical

" Naruto's actions thus far have proven to be truthful, he has returned from his training on the time he said he would," Sarutobi said getting a few nods from the group as one of the council stood up " I believe it is still necessary for Uzumaki-san to receive a punishment, it is more of a matter that we make sure that he understands his actions concerning the secrets of the village could have endangered it" Shibi Aburame stated intelligently

" If he were to do such things as a shinobi I doubt there would be any discussion to the matter at all, but as hokage-sama and Uzumaki-san said himself since he was not technically a shinobi yet he cannot be held to the same standards as a certified ninja can" Hiashi Hyuuga said calmly receiving a few acknowledgements and a whispers from the assembled group.

It was rare for the seemingly cold man to add any input into a meeting unless it was absolutely necessary, the fact he had basically told everyone he supported the young ninja said allot to everyone else involved.

" Hyuuga-san raises a valid point to the matter, even though Uzumaki-san was entered in the academy and is such a important…asset to the village" Tsume Inuzuka carefully worded her words " I agree with the assessment, we should open his punishment to an appropriate level, the only thing I can see as far as criminal charges he could receive is that he left the village without proper channels"

Sarutobi nodded as he smoked his pipe " I have taken care of all punishments Naruto will receive personally, rest assured he will be treated as any other citizen in these matters, so for now we will postpone this meeting until after I have spoken to him tonight, he will give his own account at that time and his punishments will be handed out then all agreed?" Sarutobi asked getting nods from everyone in the room before they filled from the room and the shinobi disappeared in swirls of leafs.

" Sarutobi" a voice said getting the thirds attention; it was Danzo " may I have a moment of your time" he asked though Sarutobi new it was more of a demand " of course Danzo, the input of our most distinguished members of the village, what do you need?" Sarutobi asked making Danzo grunt,

" I would like to have the young Uzumaki placed in a advanced teaching regime, his abilities under the proper care would benefit the village immensely" Danzo said making Sarutobi smile knowing full well the kinds of teaching someone like him would enforce on the young ninja. The incident of Roots training was still fresh in Sarutobi's mind, and the old Hokage wasn't convinced that the old war bird had given up the training methods completely.

" I'm sorry Danzo, Naruto has decided to attend the academy and I believe this will be the best course of action, after all the choice would ultimately be his anyway and he can be stubborn when someone tries to make him change his mind" Sarutobi said smiling making Danzo stare at him a moment before nodding and leaving the room a scowl on his face. To Danzo this was far from over, Sarutobi was a thorn in his every plan and his plans for the container of the Kyuubi were something he would not change._ 'This hindrance is only temporary, one way or another, My plans will come to fruition'._

Sarutobi slumped into his seat sighing, " I'm too old for these long meetings" Sarutobi muttered quietly looking into the shadows of the room " come out now, I want your report on Naruto". Out of the shadows stepped the familiar form of Jiraiya as he grinned wildly to his old teacher " hey now Sarutobi, don't tell me your finally feeling your age?" Jiraiya asked getting a dry laugh from the aged hokage before taking a seat before him.

" Maybe you're the one who is so old your losing your mind Jiraiya" Sarutobi said sighing, " why did you let Naruto sign the toad contract so early, you know that's going to attract allot of attention to him" Sarutobi sighed " honestly if people start asking about that what am I supposed to tell them"

Jiraiya shrugged " well it kind of happened when we were in a restaurant, we were at the bar and Naruto had asked me for about the hundredth time about my summons" Jiraiya sighed shaking his head in his hand " I might have been drinking a little much and maybe been a little drunk but I told him there was no way he would be able to summon any toads until he was better".

" Well he made a bet with me that he could summon any toad I chose for him and if he did then I would have to teach him one of my best Jutsu" Jiraiya grumbled making Sarutobi stare at him " Jiraiya, you do realize it was a win-win for Naruto, what could he have possibly betted you that you'd accept such a one-sided bet?" Sarutobi demanded as Jiraiya looked away sheepishly and covered a cough with his hand.

" Ahem, he would use his Oiroke no Jutsu to turn into Tsunade" Jiraiya replied almost in an embarrassed whisper to which Sarutobi covered his face in his hand in annoyance _' Naruto play him like a violin, he used his weakness for women and struck when he was most vulnerable, I don't know if I should applaud him, be pissed at Jiraiya, or both at this very moment'_ Sarutobi thought before taking a deep breath " so I take it he passed with flying colors am I right?" Sarutobi said getting Jiraiya to chuckle

" I told him to summon a large toad, I figured he might be able to summon a small one in the long shot guess, he ended up summoning Gamabunta on his first try, I guess he wanted to show me up" Jiraiya grinned " anyway I ended up teaching Naruto the Hari Jizo technique as his reward which he got down in a week and a half" Jiraiya smiled "although we're not here to talk about that are we you wanted to know more about the bloodline thing right?" he asked getting a nod from his old teacher.

" yes but first I want to know where Naruto was, you said he was going to come back early in the last letter you sent me but he ends up coming the very last day he can" Sarutobi said wondering what had changed his plans like that " hell if I know, last I saw he was in a port waiting for a boat to get there a few days later, whatever happened was without me" Jiraiya added furthering the mystery to the old man, but he would hhave to figure that out later, for now there was important business at hand.

" So what have you learned about Naruto's bloodline?" Sarutobi asked getting another grin from Jiraiya " well now that's an interesting place to start, I guess he showed you a bit of it before am I right?" getting a nod Jiraiya continued " well I doubt he introduced you to another aspect of it, his split personalities that control it" Sarutobi frowned at the wording of Jiraiya's information until he explained more. Sarutobi was relieved to learn about how Naruto's counter selves seemed to have his well being in mind and how they posed no threat to Naruto.

" So I take it Naruto is not under the foxs influence then, that's good " Sartobi muttered quietly " are there any negative effects of Naruto's bloodline your aware of Jiraiya?" Sarutobi asked getting a nod from him.

" Naruto has huge Chakra reserves that never seemed to run out when we trained, the only time I saw it do that was when I pushed him all day with his clones and when his alter selves used some of his bloodline jutsu" Saurtobi nodded thinking to himself as he listened.

" Is that all?" he asked getting a grimace from Jiraiya " unfortunately no, when we were about halfway in our journey together there was an…Incident that you have to be aware of" for a moment Sarutobi became worried " was the fox able to affect Naruto?" Jiraiya shook his head.

" No I wasn't the fox that was the problem" just as Sarutobi sighed in relief Jiraiya finished his statement with a frown of his own "but when this happened… Naruto did things that were more frightening than any human could do".

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Flash back

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" Naruto you do realize that you have been training these past three days non stop right?" Jiraiya asked as Naruto fought against six clones in the open field " it's not my fault you're a lazy old man Ero-sennin" Naruto shot back as he blocked a fist aimed for his face before dodging another attack from behind him.

Jiraiya sighed in annoyance it was true for the lat week he hadn't been able to teach Naruto much, between his duties for the leaf village by collecting information and his duty to write his world famous books, he simply hadn't had any time to teach. Smirking Jiraiya got an idea "well then I believe that such dedication deserves a reward don't you?" Jiraiya asked gaining Naruto's attention.

" What did you have in mind?" Naruto asked suspiciously as Jiraiya grinned.

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" A festival?" Naruto asked raising an eye as they walked into the town where bright lights of booths gleamed and people were selling of all kinds of wares, games and food. Jiraiya smirked seeing Naruto's surprise " we can be serious all the time, a person must relax and enjoy life while they can, otherwise we miss out on the good things in life"

Jiraiya said lecherously watching as two very attractive and voluptuous women passed by them

" And this town has many, many good things…" Naruto sighed at the actions of his supposed teacher before grabbing him by the back of his hair and forcibly dragging him through the streets despite the protests from the old shinobi.

" There is a difference between enjoying life and being a lecher!!!" Naruto yelled in annoyance despite his struggling teachers attempts to get away and the many stares he was getting as he dragged the older ninja.

" Well now since this was your idea you can pick up the tab for our hotel" Naruto said shoving Jiraiya ahead of him after dragging him a fair distance into the town center, Jiraiya straightened himself and after regaining his composure smacked Naruto on the head " Gaki! Who said we were staying at a hotel?" Jiraiya yelled as Naruto rubbed his bruised head with a grimace " well what are we going to do? Sleep in an alley?!" Naruto shouted making Jiraiya grin

" Of course not, we will just stay with my contact I have in this town, she wont mind putting us up for as long as we stay in the village" Jiraiya beamed confidently as he walked ahead of Naruto, not seeing he disbelieving look in his eyes " so not only is he a lecher but a moocher too" Naruto said to himself as he patted his wallet in his pocket " no way in hell he's barrowing my money" Naruto muttered before running after his teacher.

" So how long will we be here Ero-sennin?" Naruto asked as Jiraiya led him around the village " hmm well this festival starts at the beginning of the month and wrapps up around two weeks from now, so I'd say we will be here a month at the most, I have to do some things for Konoha while we're here and you can train outside the village" Jiraiya replied before silence broke between teacher and student.

Soon they were standing outside a modest looking store showing many kinds of sweets in the windows " your contact runs a sweet shop?" Naruto asked suspicious of his mentors true intentions " lots of people pass through this town, and you'd be surprised how much people talk when their eating something sweet" Jiraiya said happily as he walked into the store with a skeptical Naruto fallowing close behind.

" Aya! Hey Aya you here?" Jiraiya called out, as Naruto looked around the store his eyes taking in many interesting and good looking deserts and sweets that lined the walls of the store. " Jiraiya is that you?" a voice called out from the back as a woman walked out smiling a bit, she was a bit shorter than Jiraiya was, with long green hair tied at her neck and brown eyes.

Naruto could assume this was his contact in the village, and in is opinion she was pretty nice looking, though he wondered if there was more to her relationship with Jiraiya. Seeing the woman Jiraiya smiled happily " Aya look at you still the prettiest baker in the village" Jiraiya said as smooth as he could to which Naruto rolled his eyes and tried not to gag at the act.

Aya smiled happily as she put a finger to Jiraiya's shirt and traced his chest " Jiraiya, close your eyes and your going to get a sweet surprise" Aya said making Jiraiya grin lecherously before he shut his eyes and puckered his lips like a fish in anticipation. Naruto shook his head in annoyance ignoring the two adults antics before….

BAM!!!!!!!

" OW!!!!" Jiraiya cried holding his head squatting on the ground, as tears formed in his eyes "you didn't have to hit me so hard!" Jiraiya cried looking over his shoulder at Aya who was still smiling with the frying pan in her hand " that's what you get for not only leaving without paying me rent for your last visit but trying to peep on my baths as well" Aya beamed as Naruto laughed " I like this lady already" Naruto said to himself

" Your just lucky that Akane wasn't here this morning" Aya said looking at Naruto " and who might you be young man?" Aya asked happily as she put the pan back on the tabletop " I'm Naruto Uzumaki, and I'm traveling with the old pervert there": Naruto gestured earning a glare from Jiraiya for taking her side " he said we would be staying here while we trained here near the village".

" Oh he did?" Aya asked smiling at Jiraiya before suddenly grabbing and pulling on his ear hard earning a cry of pain from him " and your planning on paying me this time right" she asked almost too sweetly as she tugged on his ear harder " Yes! Yes! I swear!" Jiraiya cried. Aya smiled before releasing Jiraiya's ear and looking at Naruto " well my my aren't you a handsome young man, I just know Akane is going to like you".

" Who?" Naruto asked just as he heard the door open and a girl Naruto's age walked into the building, she had bright red hair and brown eyes, she was wearing a festive looking kimono which Naruto deduced that she had been attending the activites of the village " oka-san, sorry I was late, I saw this books as a prize at the fair and I really had to…" the girl said before seeing Jiraiya.

" YOU!" the girl shouted in rage as she jumped towards the old ninja no doubt intending bodily harm. Naruto was just thinking he would need a new sensei when she was done before he suddenly found himself in the path of the flying girl. Their inevitable collision ended with Naruto looking up at the ceiling from his new position on the ground, the red haired girl sitting on his chest looking around confused as to what just happened.

Naruto looked around confused as to what happened as well until he saw Jiraiya standing where he had been " damn you old bastard!" Naruto shouted angrily as he lay there " you switched places with me using kawami no jutsu didn't you!!!!" Naruto seethed bitterly at being used like that.

" I have no idea what your talking about brat" Jiraiya said innocently as he dusted himself " besides you should be happy, not many your age can say they've had this experience" Jiraiya grinned making Naruto confused before he realized what his teacher meant…the girl still hadn't moved from their compromising position.

" Don't be so shy now you two " Jiraiya teased grinning like mad man before vanishing in a puff of smoke as Aya giggled, " don't do anything I wouldn't do dear" Aya said before retreating into the shop. Naruto sighed in annoyance muttering " damn perverts" before looking at the girl still on him " if you wouldn't mind, I would like to stand up now" Naruto muttered.

The girl looked at Naruto a moment before blushing brightly and jumping off him with a yelp to the wall " Y-You pervert! Don't get any idea's!" the girl stuttered out embarrassed " I just wanted to kill that other pervert for trying to peek at my mom in the bath last time he was here".

Naruto pulled himself from the ground and after dusting himself off looked at the girl right in the eyes " believe me I don't blame you, and as my teacher goes I'm a saint compared to him" Naruto commented making the girl look at him suspiciously " how do I know your not as bad as he is?"

Naruto grinned beneath his mask " well for one I can say I've never been chased by a horde of angry women for peeking in a bath house, I'm usually the one laughing as he gets beat into the ground…and then heal him after he gets his ass handed to him a dozen times over" Naruto replied actually getting the girl to giggle a little before she realized she had and tried to cover it up with a frown

" Well don't think I'll let you off easy just because you say so, but I'll give you a chance" she said grinning holding her hand out " I'm Akane Akemi" she smiled as Naruto took her hand in his " I'm Naruto Uzumaki and you should know there's another reason I'm not like my sensei".

" Oh really? What's that?" Akane asked before Naruto's natural charm came out as he bent and kissed her hand and with a smooth masked smile and wink replied, " I couldn't think of doing something like that to someone so pretty".

Naruto had learned allot about women from the old pervert, and besides his lessons in intelligence gathering and learning to tell if a kunoichi was trying to use their charms on him he figured doing the exact opposite of what Jiraiya did would be good for his health as well as his standing with the opposite sex in general.

Akane's face light up like a firework as she lost the ability to speak with the exception of strange squeaks coming from her throat before she suddenly reacted out of shock and embarrassment by a mean right hook right to Naruto's face, knocking him into the hardwood counter.

Naruto ended up back on the ground with a thud drawing Akane from her daze before realizing what she did " MOM! Come quick!" she yelled as she checked on the boy " Naruto! Are you ok?" Akane asked worriedly as Naruto looked at her dazed from the powerhouse hit " I'll give that hit a nine of ten" Naruto said before passing out causing the red head to panic even more.

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" That was the beginning of a long month" Jiraiya grinned to his old sensei " you would swear it was just like Minato and Kushina when they were that age, it was almost spooky seeing them act that way" Jiraiya commented getting a smile from Sarutobi "Yes Naruto seems to have the same flirtatious charisma as his father, and if I recall right Minato met Kushina in a similar way Naruto met this girl…" Sarutobi said casting a suspicious glance to his student who nervously rubbed his neck.

" Now now sensei you know I don't play match maker," Jiraiya said joking as he looked up at the picture of the fourth above Sarutobi " Naruto is more and more like his parents with each day, he's intelligent and strong as his father, as creative and driven as his mother…and hits as hard as they both did when I did my research around them" he mentioned more like and after thought as he rubbed his face " how does he expect me to finish the next volume he keeps asking for if I cant be inspired?"

" Jiraiya you showed Naruto your books?" Sarutobi asked with a frown " what are you crazy? Kushina would kill me when I join them in the after life if I did that," Jiraiya's tone was as if he couldn't believe his sensei asked such a question, it was downright suicide.

"He was already a fan of them when I found him" Jiraiya shrugged" don't ask me how he came across one of my books, he never told me, but he is certainly bright enough not to read them openly like Kakashi does, though I have to say, that Namikaze charm is strong in him." Jiraiya said before mumbling under his breath " how he charmed so many women without even trying is beyond me ".

Shaking his head in amusement Sarutobi thought to himself _' Naruto one of these days your going to end up like your father when he used to use his charms over the village…with a horde of fan girls on your heels'_ Sarutobi smiled to himself before nodding to Jiraiya, unsaid permission to continue recounting the events.

" Anyway after that little bump in the road, they were pretty much inseparable, hell she came to watch Naruto train when I took him from her" Jiraiya grinned remembering the number of times she trailed them and still found them after Jiraiya dragged Naruto off to train privately " then the it was the middle of the month something very interesting took place between those two".

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Flash back: Two weeks later after arrival

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Naruto and Jiraiya sat at the table along with Aya and Akane, after a long day of training Naruto couldn't had been more eager to see what Aya made for dinner, it seemed she was skilled in more than just sweets. Naruto grinned behind his mask happily " that food was delicious Aya-san, I haven't had curry that good before" Naruto said before looking across the table " Akane-chan you ok? You haven't touched you food" Naruto said looking at the girl who had an annoyed look on her face, a whole two weeks of dinner with the guy and she hasn't seen his face once!

" Yes I'm fine Naruto-kun" Akane said tensely as her chopsticks broke in her hand making Naruto sweatdrop _' yeah, as fine as someone tense as her can' _Naruto thought to himself_._ Akane seemed to be deep in though a momentbefore her face brightened with a look of realization and a smile broke out on her face " I'll be right back" she said running into the kitchen making Naruto look at Jiraiya who shrugged in return of the unasked question.

Akane returned a short time later holding a tray with some small cakes on it " Naruto-kun would you like a dessert?" Akane asked grinning to which Naruto shook his head " no thank you Akane-chan I ate way too much already" Naruto said before seeing her giving him puppy dog eyes " please Naruto-kun? I spent all day making these and I really want you to try one" Akane said sadly making Naruto nervous, when a girl gives you the degree of puppy eyes she was giving Naruto it is impossible not to cave in " uhh you know what I'll have one" Naruto said quickly as he picked one up from the plate.

' _Perfect! Now when Naruto-kun goes for a bite I'll finally see his face!'_ Akane grinned to herself as Naruto reached for his mask, making her more anxious with each second that passed. " mmm this does look good" Naruto said as his hand gripped the bridge of his mask making Akane's breath hold for a moment in suspense.

" What about me?" Jiraiya asked as he reached for one only for Akane to slap his hand away " none for you pervert!" Akane yelled glaring at him before realizing what she had done and turning around found Naruto's mask where it always was with motions of chewing beneath it.

" mmm that was delicious Akane-chan" Naruto said smiling to which Akane out of frustration smacked Jiraiya over the head with the tray over his head. A very comical sight seeing as she hadn't moved her eyes from Naruto and had used only one hand to do it, although Naruto was a little freaked out over it.

Quicker than Naruto could tell Akane was holding him by his shirt and looking at him right in the eyes " You. Me. The festival. NOW!" Akane yelled dragging him out the door as her mother watched her pull Naruto from his seat and out the house " my she certainly is spirited tonight" Aya beamed as Jiraiya pulled himself from the floor " well I wish she wasn't so spirited on my head" Jiraiya said rubbing it making Aya giggle.

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Naruto walked alongside Akane as she took him through the fair, every now and then she would stop and ask him to win her something from one of the game booths, which Naruto did though he wondered why she was taking him all over the place to begin with seeing as he would rather be getting some rest since he had been practicing all day, not that he complained to her about it.

" Akane-chan is something wrong? You haven't said much to me the whole time we've been here," Naruto asked as they walked through the fair grounds " it's nothing Naruto-kun I just want us to enjoy the festival after all this is the last night of the festival" Akane said getting Naruto to nod in thought " hmm well then since you showed me the festival, there's something I want to show you" Naruto said placing a hand on Akane's shoulder making her confused to what he meant before the two of them disappeared in a swirl of leaves.

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Akane felt dizzy as they appeared in a new place "careful there Akane-chan" Naruto said catching her as she fell backwards into him " I forgot the first few times using Shunshin no Jutsu can be a bit disorienting, though I think you'll find the trip was worth it" Naruto helped Akane to sit on fallen tree

" Umm Naruto not that I'm not happy you took me somewhere just the two of us are but why are we here?" Akane asked making Naruto smile as he pointed behind her " take a look for yourself Akane-chan"

Turning around Akane could see her whole village below the fairs lights illuminated the sky in a rainbow of bright colors while the stars shined down above it " it's beautiful Naruto-kun! When did you find this place?" Akane exclaimed as Naruto joined her on the tree " when I was training, I found this that night I was out later than usual" Naruto said smiling " but the best parts about to begin now" Naruto said with a hint of mirth to his voice.

Before she could ask what he meant a whistling sound filled the air over the village before an array of colorful fireworks filled the nights sky " so Akane-chan feeling better now?" Naruto asked as they watched the fireworks light up the sky overhead " a little Naruto-kun, though you didn't have to do this for me" she replied getting Naruto to shake his head " you shouldn't be so sad Akane-chan you look better when you smile" that little comment made said girl blush again.

" ummm Naruto-kun, you know your leaving soon right" Akane asked playing with her hands nervously " well you know two weeks isn't that long if you think about it" she finished weakly making Naruto nod in thought " time does seem to fly doesn't it?" Naruto thought out loud " before I know it I'm going to be heading back to my village, and then it's only a year till I get to be a ninja after that"

Akane looked down in her feet a moment before nodding to herself in a decision " Naruto-kun I have something for you" Akane said getting Naruto's attention as she reached behind her neck and started fiddling with something hidden by her long red hair.

Naruto watched as she took off a necklace she had hidden under her kimono " here I want you to have this Naruto-kun" Akane smiled handing him the trinket.

Naruto looked at it in his hand, it didn't look expensive, but was certainly beautiful nonetheless. It was shaped like a flower and Naruto's fingers traced the lines of the necklaces design " its something that's been in my family for a long time" Akane said bringing Naruto out of his thoughts

" My great grandfather gave it to my great grandmother who passed it to my grandfather when he married my grandmother, all the way down to when my mom gave it to me" Akane smiled.

" Akane-chan if it's that important then you should keep it, I don't deserve this" Naruto replied shocked Akane would give him something like this " Naruto I want you to have this, think of it as something to remember me by when you have to leave" Akane giggled " after all that is my favorite flower". Naruto held the flower shaped pendant up to the sky looking at it " what kind of flower is it?" Naruto asked getting Akane to giggle again.

" Its called honeysuckle Nauto-kun" Akane answered before getting up from the tree and turning to look at him " do you know what honeysuckles symbolize Naruto-kun?" Akane asked happily leaning to look at him with her hands behind her back " what honeysuckles…symbolize?" Naruto questioned hesitantly making Akane's smile grow " devoted affection" was her short reply before turning around and walking back down to the village.

Naruto sat in shock for a moment " d-devoted…affection?" Naruto asked himself stumbling the words as his mask darkened thanks to the blush underneath it before he jumping up from the tree and running after the girl " Akane-chan! Wait up! What do you mean?!" Naruto yelled only for Akane's laughter to fill the air.

If either of the had turned around they would have seen Jiraiya sitting in the tree line grinning as he watched his young student and friend running back into the village " hehe Aya is going to love this, I knew introducing those two would be a good idea to brighten Naruto up a bit…" Jiraiya said before pulling out his little notebook and he began writing.

" hehehe the little gaki is a great source of inspiration, he might kill me for this later, but its worth it" Jiraiya chuckled perversely as he scribbled down his latest plotline involving two lovers under a woods nights sky filled with fireworks overhead.

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" After that night everything seemed to flyby, Naruto finished learning the jutsu I had been teaching him, and I had finished gathering what the village needed to know, and then…the day we left it happened." Jiraiya said more to himself than his teacher.

Sarutobi knew whatever Jiraiya was about to tell him was going to be troubling…he just didn't know how bad was really going to be.

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Two weeks later: morning of the departure

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" So Jiraiya it was a pleasure having you over again Aya said happily as Akane and her saw their guests out on the steps of the building " thanks for putting us up while we were in town Aya, " Jiraiya said grinning " Naruto be a dear and make sure Jiraiya doesn't die because of his bad habits" Aya asked to which Naruo nodded " I'll do my best Aya-san, though if I did it every time he wouldn't learn his lesson now would he?" Naruto joked making everyone laugh except for the mentioned pervert " no respect, and just who is the teacher here?" Jiraiya grumbled.

"Well either way, take care of yourselves" Aya smiled looking down at her daughter "we're going to miss the company aren't we dear?" Akane nodded as she smiled at Naruto " remember Naruto-kun, you better be sure to write often or I'm going to travel all the way to the leaf village just to make you regret it" Akane warned to which Naruto nodded his head though he suspected she really would do that if it came to that.

" Come on gaki, we got allot of ground to cover before nightfall" Jiraiya said as he walked out towards the village gates, Naruto turned to join him until Akane called him " wait Naruto-kun! I want to give you something before you leave" Akane said happily but from what Naruto could tell a bit of nervousness making Naruto smile as he turned back to face her " what's that Akane-chan?" Naruto asked before she leaned over to him and kissed his masked cheek " hehe that what Naruto-kun" Akane said blushing a bit with a smile seeing the shock in his eyes before Jiraiya yelled " GAKI!!! GET A MOVE ON OR NO NEW JUTSU IN THE MORNING!!!!"

Naruto looked between Jiraiya and them before he gave another quick farewell with a blush when he looked at Akane this time before running after his teacher waving as he did to two more people he considered precious to him.

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Walking side-by-side Naruto and Jiraiya just cleared the light forest blocking the village from their view as their road led them to the wide open grasslands near the village " so did you enjoy our little side trip?" Jiraiya inquired making Naruto smile " for once you had a good idea Sensei" Naruto said making Jiraiya stop in place for a moment as Naruto kept walking ahead of him.

It was rare for Naruto to show him much respect, and he never called him Sensei before, Jiraiya could see Minato walking ahead of him a moment before turning around and Naruto was in his place standing much like his previous student did " you ok? You look like someone took your notebook" Naruto said bringing Jiraiya out of his thoughts.

" I was just wondering why you didn't realize sooner that all my idea's are good ones!" Jiraiya beamed making Naruto look at him funny " really? Because I thought peeking on that hot spring full of female civilians and ninja's was a bad idea" Naruto shot back before walking again as Jiraiya fell in line with him once more " hmph, no respect these days" Jiraiya joked getting Naruto to smile.

Before their conversation could go any further Jiraiya stopped suddenly rigged and Naruto's visible eyes narrowed " Naruto you feel that?" Jiraiya asked quietly getting a nod from his student " so how many you want, I'm up for a little exercise" Naruto said stretching his neck a bit getting Jiraiya to grin " well lets see what we're up against" Jiraiya commented making Naruto grin " OK!!" Naruto shouted before bringing his hand up in a fist and hitting the ground.

Suddenly several hidden ninja jumped from their hiding places to avoid the rocks that jutted towards them from the ground, one that wasn't quick enough was knocked right into the road after the earth collided with his body, knocking him out cold.

" Hmm I haven't seen these guys before" Naruto mused looking at their opponents, they were definitely ninja by the way they moved and outfitted themselves, and judging from their posture they were trained well enough to be considered high Chunin, toobad Naruto had fought against stronger enemies and won. Just as Naruto was getting ready to attack Jiraiya spoke " Naruto I want you to be careful" Jiraiya said sternly, Naruto stared at his teacher a moment and nodded realizing the seriousness of the time due to his sensei's actions.

" Jiraiya of the Sannin, it is unfortunate for you and the little brat we're here to kill you" one of the strange ninja said as they pulled out kunai and other weapons" better shinobi than you have tried pal" Naruto said getting a glare from the apparent leader of the unit of assassins " you don't stand a chance against us, we were hand picked for this mission, and when we kill the legendary toad sage our master will reward us greatly".

Jiraiya smirked a little suddenly becoming a bit looser " your leader must be a fool then, if he thinks you can beat me and my student" Jiraiya replied returning to his usual offbeat self making the ninja growl " we're going to make you regret those words" the leader of the group said "but when we're done here nobody will miss you, after all, we're very thorough" Naruto wondered what their opponents meant before it happened.

Hearing an explosion Naruto and Jiraiya turned to glance behind them to see smoke coming from behind the tree line, the village was under attack " The village! Aya-san! Akane-chan!" Naruto shouted in realization as he turned on his heels completely ignoring the ninja's behind him as he started sprinting to the village.

" Not so fast brat!" an enemy said as two blocked his way " your not going any…" his words cut off as his head was severed from his body from a now red haired Naruto " out of the fucking way!" Kaji yelled midair as he landed a heavy kick to the face of the other opponent blocking his path.

The possessed Naruto ran as fast as his legs would carry him back to the village " don't just stand there get him" the leader said to the other ninja but before any of them could move one was taken down by a strong punch to the gut throwing him into another who fell over at the unexpected weight " I'm your opponent" Jiraiya said sliding into his Taijutsu style with a grin although inside he was far from happy _' Naruto, you've never changed into one of them without the Jutsu before, I hope this wont get worse than it already is'_

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The possessed Naruto ran through the village as he ran to the only place on his mind right now, the flames in his path parted as he ran a straight path to his destination, his bloodline clearing the way for him and any enemies unfortunate enough to find their way into his path were quickly dealt with. _'Almost there, please be alright' _Naruto's half of his mind prayed as he slide around the corner of the street where the sweet shop had been.

The entire street was covered in debris from the surrounding buildings, but he froze when his eyes fell on a particular building on the street.

The possessed Naruto stared in shock a moment at what had been the sweets store, the front of it was completely gone, and the inside had been gutted, everything was outside in the street and the roof of the building was still on fire " No…" Kaji whispered looking around frantically in the smoldering debris " Aya-san! Akane-chan! " The red headed Naruto yelled as he searched the destroyed house before seeing one of the people he was searching for " Akane-chan!!!" Naruto yelled.

Akane was buried under some of the remains of the house and fire had begun to spread close to her, acting quickly Kaji gathered the fire around him like a magnet to metal, the flames literally leaping onto him as he surrounded himself in a cocoon made of the flames before raising his hands to the sky and shot the extra fire into the sky.

Naruto didn't even stop for a breath as Kaji's influence receded back into him, returning him back to his natural blond hair and blue eye color. He climbed over the smoking ruins to where his friend laid " Akane-chan! I'm here it's me Naruto!" he yelled checking his friend over and growing more worried by the second, he didn't need to be a medical nin to know she was hurt.

From what he could see at the moment she not only have broken bones when the house fell, but she had cuts on her that were deep enough that she was bleeding openly, he needed her help to heal her if he was going to and to do that she needed to be awake to tell him what was wrong and what she felt.

Naruto began to panic when he saw she wasn't responding to him and was barely breathing Naruto pulled his mask off and without hesitation began trying CPR to revive her. After a minute of this he was rewarded with the girl underneath him coughing quietly before opening her eyes weakly and staring at him " Akane-chan! Don't worry I'm here now" Naruto said looking right at her worriedly.

" Naruto…kun you…came back" Akane said weakly grinning at him " I knew…you were cute…under that mask" she said in almost a whisper as he looked her over " Akane-chan don't speak so much, you need as much strength as you have," Naruto said making a hand seal before his hands glowed a light green, it was one of the only healing Jutsu he knew and it wouldn't heal her worst wounds, but he had to do something or else…

" Don't worry Akane-chan I'll make you better and then I'll find your mom and…and…" Naruto said quickly as he was about to put his hands over the wounds but Akane halted his movement with a ragged breath " Naruto-kun…stop" Akane whispered looking at him " but…but Akane-chan if I don't do this then you'll…" Naruto said making her shake her head and slowly reach up and grab his hand in hers weakly.

" Naruto-kun…you know you…cant help me now…so…please promise…me something" she asked making Naruto nod sadly hanging onto her every word" promise…you'll make me…proud…make your…dream real" she said as her eyes started fluttering slowly " Akane-chan! Please you cant close your eyes!" Naruto shouted as tears started running down his face " stay awake Akane-chan! Please!" Naruto cried his voice wavering as Akane only smiled weakly at him " Naruto-kun don't cry, don't you know...boys aren't …supposed… to…cry" Akane said in a near whisper as her eyes shut and Naruto felt her hand go limp in his.

" Akane-chan" Naruto whispered as tears rolled down his eyes as he stared at her a moment before suddenly it hit him, she had died. " AKANE-CHAN"!!!" Naruto yelled, yet getting no response from her, Shocked, angry, sad, Naruto was feeling all of these as he held her close as he yelled out his frustration, his sadness, and his pain of losing someone he held close to his heart the yell of pure loss echoing the street as his mind raced. _' NO! NO! NO! NO! NO!' _Naruto thought as he clenched his eyes tight as his tears spilled from them, all the past months events with her rushing to the forefront of his mnd, her shinign eyes, her joyful laugh, even her happy smile as smple as it was meant so much for him at this moment as he yelled to Kami in his mind. '_This wasn't supposed to happen to her! She wasn't a fighter! There was no reason for her to die!'_ Naruto thought as his thoughts turned from sadness to regret _' If I had been faster, if I had been stronger, if I knew more medical Jutsu…"_ Naruto's thoughts jumped from one to the next without any thought to what he was thinking. So absorbed in his thoughts Naruto didn't hear as the street was no longer empty.

" Well look what we have here," a voice said from behind Naruto " so you're the one who gave us that little light show huh?" Naruto barely glanced behind him to see another squad of the enemy ninja surrounding him behind his back before returning his look to Akane's peaceful face " what you have there you little boy?" he sneered, " someone playing ninja shouldn't be allowed to live if you cant take the pain" as the others laughed and joined in one add " hey I know why he's crying all over the place like this, he knew that little bitch"

" Shut up" Naruto whispered not even looking at them, his hair covering his face in a shadow. All he wanted right no was to be left alone with his friend, to be able to mourn for her and show he cared even if it was only holding her a moment longer as he remembered their time together.

" hehe is that what it is?" the leader asked grinning " you knew her huh, must have been special if you're crying like a fucking child," he said " what wrong you little bastard, put the fucking bitch down and look when your betters talking to you" he egged Naruto on not seeing Naruto tensing up with each word.

" Shut up" Naruto said a little louder as he felt something awakening deep in him, something he hadn't felt in his life before, it was such a overcoming feeling that he was feeling himself give into it willingly more and more each second. But it seemed the enemies around him did not sense the danger as he pushed Naruto once too far. Naruto thoughts turned dark as a realization came to his mind _' they attacked the village…their the reason Akane-chan died…__**IT'S ALL THEIR FAULT!!!!!!!'**_

" Oh what's wrong? Was she your girlfriend or something? Too bad she died, if she gave you any time she must have been a real slu…" the leader started to say before his neck was pierced clean through suddenly. The rest of the squad stared in shock as a black scythe with a long black chain with a weight at the end pierced their leaders neck vertically with the head of the blade coming out of his open mouth.

Then they felt it, the killing intent the boy was making was so strong it forced many of the remaining men to the ground, all of them were having trouble breathing, and a few had the unshakable urge to flee, somewhere, anywhere as long as it wasn't here. Naruto's breath came out like as if it were colder than it was as fog floated with his every breath. The whole area seemed to quiet as a grave, and after placing Akane's seemingly fragile body onto the ground gently Naruto stood up and faced his opponents. He gave a dark chuckle as they watched their comrade was lifted from the ground.

The worst part is it seemed their leader was still alive as he slightly struggled and gurgled as blood filled what remained of his neck. He was pulled towards what had been a blond haired boy now covered in hair as black as ink **" Little vermin like you need to learn their place"** the man heard as he was hefted to a terrifying sight of the boy looking right at him with blood red silted eyes and a sinister looking grin that reveled at the look of fear in his eyes.

As Naruto lost himself in the sensations of the overwhelming emotion he was feeling, the sounds of screams and pain that erupted around him seemed so far away…and as his mind was going black he found the word to name that emotion that had taken him over so completely…Hate.

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Jiraiya grinned as he stared down the last three enemies in front of him, all the rest were laid out on the ground around him " so is this the best you have got? I'm not impressed" Jiraiya said making them growl in frustration " damn it I thought we could handle this" one said making another nod " we just got to rush him, even if we die its better than going back and saying we failed" the other said getting the other two to agree. Their master would do far worse things to them if they returned unsuccessful.

" Right lets get this bastard" he shouted as they ran at Jiraiya who stood ready to defend himself yet again only to stop as a cloud of killing intent washed over the area freezing the four in place for different reasons. The three remaining fighters had never felt such pure killing intent, even what they had experienced from their master paled in comparison to what they were feeling now.

Jiraiya's eyes widened as he felt the pure malice coming from the village he knew the source instantly _' Naruto, I have to get to him, if the seals breaking or worse…I have to wrap this up now!'_ Jiraiya thought as he turned to face his enemies to see them cowering under the effects of induced fear _' I doubt these three will put up a fight, one of them looks about ready to slit his throat to end it right now, I better get going'_ Jiraiya disappeared in a burst of speed as he headed into the village after the source of the killing intent, and ultimately his student.

" W-w-what do we do now? There's no fucking way I'm going back into the village after …that! One of the ninja exclaimed as the other two agreed, "I can take what the master will give us because compared to that…the pain we will feel is nothing the bastards in there are going through" one said grimly as the others swallowed hard.

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Jiraiya jumped from roof to roof as he headed in the direction the killing intent was coming from, he knew his student was the cause of it, and that whatever awaited him as he neared the epicenter of the paralyzing force. Even Jiraiya was starting to feel the power forcing itself on him, but he shrugged it off as best as he could, nothing was going to stop him from seeing what had become of his student…his godson.

Jiraiya landed onto the street where Naruto had been heading only to freeze at what he saw before him, it was a massacre. Bodies of ninja's like the ones he had been fighting lay all over the street covering it with blood, some were decapitated while other bodies were cut open letting everything inside out onto the street.

These shinobi hadn't been fighting something; they had been slaughtered like sheep in a wolf's den, Jiraiya hadn't seen something like this in his life, even many of the acts he had seen in the wars didn't come close to this, these warriors had be butchered like animals. As Jiraiya walked up the street the closer to where his contacts house had been the worse the bodies he found were mutilated, but on every face of the fallen fighters he saw only on thing, pure fear.

Then the deathly silence of the street ended as he heard someone running to him from the street ahead " No! I don't want to die!" Jiraiya heard as shinobi bleeding from several cuts over his body ran around the corner towards him, then a weighted chain seemingly alive flew after him and wrapped around his legs, making him fall face first to the road " No!" the man yelled as he tired frantically to crawl away even as he was pulled backwards.

" **You should know better than to mess with death little vermin" **a demonic sounding voice said making Jiraiya look for the source. When he found it he was over come in shock seeing that what he feared was true, the cause of the killing intent, the ruthless butchering of the shinobi laid out in the street, Naruto had been the cause of it.

Naruto was covered in the blood of the fallen ninja, in one hand several heads of the shinobi ha had killed held by their hair or clothing over their heads, in the other he carried his scythe that was dipping the blood of those he had already slain onto the road as he approached the helpless man a wicked grin on his face, it was unlike any look Jiraiya had seen Naruto have before. " NARUTO!" Jiraiya shouted getting the black haired boy to stop and look up, the grin on his face widening even more to a sinister smile **" ooh Jiraiya…I was wondering when you were going to show up, hang on and I'll kill you as soon as I finish this weakling"** the red eyed Naruto said looking down at the trapped man like a hungry predator.

" NO! Please! Have mercy!" the man yelled fearfully looking up as the boy raised his scythe, holding it in the air only a moment the overcome Naruto smirked **" Mercy? What is that?" **he asked before bringing his hand down." NARUTO!" Jiraiya yelled as he tried to stop him, but it was already too late as he sliced the man perfectly in half with the blade, Jiraiya watched in shock as the two half's fell before his twistedly changed student. **" heh, that was a waste, he could have screamed some more before the end" **the possessed Naruto spat kicking the fallen remains before looking at Jiraiya with a sickening grin.

Jiraiya gave a hard stare at the boy in front of him " your not Naruto and your not any of his personalities I know of, your something new" Jiraiya said getting a dark chuckle as his response **" my my, your on the ball today,"** the faux Naruto said in tone holding nothing but disrespect** "I'm everything that weakling has kept locked deep in him since he left that pathetic little village, my name…you may call me Daikirai not that you will be around long enough to use it much"** the newly named power said **" I haven't been out in the open for a long time, but since weakling loss that female weakling and let me loose now I feel like having some fun , I think I'll start by slaughtering my way to the weaklings home village and finish the fun I was having when I was there last" **Daikirai laughed excitedly.

" You're the one Kyuubi used to attack the village?!" Jiraiya shouted sliding into a fighting stance only to get a amused look in response **" oh no, that was all me, when an emotion gets out of control we get to take over the body completely, and I hate every living thing I see, I'm going to take great pleasure in turning the hidden leaf into a graveyard where not even grass will grow and then the rest of this pitiful world will fallow, where I walk everything shall wither and die for I am Daikirai of the darkness and I am the death of the world" **Daikirai saidas a grin tugged at his lips **" now that introductions are out of the way…" **Daikirai said spinning the scythe in his hand before pointing it right at the toad Sennin.

" **I think a legendary ninja's head would go well in my collection" **Daikirai said making Jiraiya grimace " so your everything Naruto is huh? I don't buy that for a second" Jiraiya grinned making Daikirai's face change into a scowl " Naruto…the REAL Naruto is nothing like you, he is someone the world needs more of, he would never kill someone needlessly and when he has to he does not enjoy it like a monster like you!" Jiraiya said growing louder with each word "he is one of the most talented students I have ever had, he is no weakling" Jiraiya growled out, as Daikirai seemed to grow more infuriated with each word.

"And more importantly he knows how important his friends are" Jiraiya said before yelling at the top of his lungs" Naruto! Is this what Akane would want to see of you?! What do you think she would say if she saw you now!" Jiraiya shouted making Daikirai look at him like he had lost his mind before laugh loudly.

" **You are even worse than the weakling if you think he'd respond to that, he is too occupied being torn over that weakling he saw die to stop anything I want to AGHHHH!!!" **Daikirai screamed suddenly dropping the heads and his weapon to the ground as his hands moved to his head suddenly in pain causing Jiraiya to stare in bewilderment and concern all at the same time **" NO! You can't come out yet! I'm not done! I WANT TO KILL SOME MORE!" **Daikirai yelled, as his hair slowly returned back to the yellow color Jiraiya was so familiar with and as the screaming turn from the demonic sound of Daikirai to Naruto's.

Jiraiya watched as a seemingly exhausted Naruto hunched over breathing heavily for a minute before looking up at his teacher and Jiraiya frowned knowing the look in Naruto's eyes, he had seen it many times in his life as a ninja, and no matter how much he saw it he could never get used to it. He and Naruto had many talk of what being a ninja was about, especially since Naruto had told him of his dream of being the hokage, but nothing could prepare him for actually experiencing such a loss for the first time.

Jiraiya sighed before walking to Naruto; standing in front of him a moment of silence went between them as Jiraiya looked at his student who only stared at the ground. Jiraiya shook his head, Naruto was stubborn and wouldn't want to make him disappointed even if it meant acting human and showing emotions, something shinobi were trained and told not to do.

Jiraiya placed a hand on Naruto's head " its ok Naruto, let it out" Jiraiya said quietly causing the boy to nod his head slightly before leaning his head against his teacher and once again vented out his frustrations, this time with someone he respected to help him through it.

Jiraiya just stood there letting Naruto work it out in him; he knew Naruto would face more of this in the future. As he would grow older he might loose more people close to him, as the hokage he might be the cause of some of those indirectly; but for now he was still a student, a child despite the way he acted much of the time and he had to get through this before he could go any further.

' _Minato,Kushina, could either of you forgive me for making your son have to grow up so fast?'_ Jiraiya asked sadly looking to the sky a forlorn expression on his face, the cloudy sky seeming to sense the atmosphere around them as rain began to fall and started washing the bloodstained street clean of the massacre that marked it. Jiraiya sighed once again before staring at one of the headbands the slain shinobi had been wearing and the strange music note seemingly face him back.

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Jiraiya stood behind Naruto watching as his student knelt infront of Akane's grave, Naruto had told Jiraiya he wasn't going to leave till he had helped rebuild the village she loved so much and given her a proper funeral, he hadn't mad any argument against it.

With their help the most of the village had been spared, Naruto's newest power had killed off or scared off the enemy ninja's so the civilian causality rate had been sparse, most had did so in the surprise attack's first wave when the bombs had gone off. Within the week the village had been cleared of the rubble from the battle and it seemed everyone had returned to some semblance of normalcy, this was the only thing they had needed to do before they could leave.

Naruto had chosen the spot he had taken her to the last night of the festival, over looking the village he knew she would have it no other way. " I will keep my promise Akane-chan I'll make you proud," Naruto whispered, before pulling a seed from his pocket, Naruto made the seed bloom before placing the newly made honeysuckle flower on the simple grave and stood up.

" Jiraiya I want you to do something for me" Nruto said as his eyes roamed over the marble stone with Akane's name written into its surface. " What's that Naruto?" Jiraiya said before Naruto turned to face him " teach me everything, leave nothing out, and don't hold back, because if I find out you did not even the Shinigami would be able to keep you safe" Naruto stated making his teacher look at him, Naruto had eyes that reminded him strikingly of his fathers when Jiraiya had first met him and Jiraiya knew then Naruto was meaning every word he said, Jiraiya sighed before turning away from him and walking down the road

" We have a long way to go then," Jiraiya said with an unseen proud smile on his face as he walked away from his student. Naruto looked at the grave one last time, place a hand on her tombstone Naruto whispered a goodbye before he started walking after his teacher whilst the stone bore new writing on the surface Naruto had just made with his bloodline it simply read:

Akane Akemi

A soul so pure she shined like the sun

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Sarutobi and Jiraiya stood silently each in their own thoughts but each of them visibly moved to the story " since that day Naruto has never let anyone close to his heart more than a friend, " Jiraiya said finally breaking the silence " whenever he met someone who seemed to take an interest in him like that he would make an excuse and go off on his own, I don't think he's forgiven himself for losing himself like that or being unable to save her, and I think he still has some sorting out to do before he will ever let that sort of relationship form" Jiraiya said getting a nod from his sensei having known about such times in many a ninja's life before Naruto was even born in his reign as hokage.

"And the mother of this girl?" Sarutobi asked getting a shake of the head from Jiraiya " she was no where to be found, It is unlikely she lived however seeing how destroyed their house was…she probably was one of the first" Jiraiya said getting a grim look from his teacher before the old Hokage returned to the role of the leader of the village.

" Jiraiya…what happened in this office never leave's this room understand" Sarutobi finally said getting a nod from his old student. Jiraiya got up and walked to the window before turning to face his old teacher.

" Sensei Naruto used to tell me how he wasn't exactly treated as Minato asked him to be, do you plan to let it happen again" Jiraiya asked making the old man frown " I realize now that there is much more I could have done to help him, I did as much as I could at the time though that is no excuse for what some in the village put him through" Sarutobi said placing his pipe in his mouth.

" Much of the village have a neutral opinion of him, a few even took a liking to the boy" Sarutobi commented with a smile taking a calming puff from his pipe " those in the minority of the village who openly dislike the boy unfortunately are smart enough not to do it around those who may help him, and those neutral to him don't help for fear of retaliation from those who are against him".

Sarutobi sighed taking another breath of smoke from his pipe " I know there has been at least three times those that dislike him enough have risked attacking the boy, but Naruto was and is cleaver enough to outsmart them whenever they tried, though I wonder how many times they have really tried seeing as we never caught them in the act and only know because Naruto came and told me" Sarutobi shook his head watching his crystal ball again seeing as Naruto walked to another part of the village and a few bystanders were giving him a few dirty looks, which he seemed to shrug off as easily as they sent them.

Jiraiya smirked before looking towards the window again " well don't worry about that anymore, Naruto wont let anyone walk over him anymore, especially after the training I put him through" Sarutobi watched his student step onto the window preparing to leave " I doubt it will be long before they try something and don't you worry he knows to use restraint on those fools so just sit back and enjoy the show, meanwhile I'll be getting a front row seat" Jiraiya finished preparing to leave the office.

" Oh wanting to see how far he's come since you left him?" Sarutobi asked with a smile getting a look of confusion from Jiraiya in return " huh? I want talking about the hot springs," Jiraiya said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world before leaping from the office out the window. Sighing at the actions of his student once again Sarutobi turned his attention to Naruto once again as he seemed to have picked up three men fallowing him in a poor attempt of stealth " Jiraiya was right about it I guess, well now lets see how you handle this Naruto" Sarutobi said to himself.

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Naruto took a slight detour into one of the small-forested areas close to him upon sensing his unwelcome guests _' knew word would spread fast when I got back, lets hope these three imbeciles spread what I have to say when I'm through with them'_ Naruto thought to himself before turning on his heels looking in the direction he had come from.

" Alright will the three people with the death wishes please step forward?" Naruto taunted drawing the three large men out " so you knew we were here then? You really are a demon if you could do that" a man holding a club said getting Naruto to grin under his mask, the other two also had weapons on them a chain and large hammer to be precise, all in all very poor choices as weapons for those with no skill.

"Actually you three suck at stealth, a deaf man could hear the racket you three were making trying to fallow me" Naruto replied with mirth in his voice as the three men couldn't see they had already walked into his trap. " Then again I have to give you credit, the three imbeciles with heavy weapons gag never gets old" Naruto said grinning treat this like a joke. The men growled their displeasure as one boldly said, " demons like you don't deserve to live, go back to hell or we'll make it happen ourselves". Naruto sighed " I'm only going to say this once, and I say it slow and in small words so you get it the first time" Naruto said making the three bristle.

"Idle threats" Naruto said slowly looking right at them " are worthless if you can't back them up and I seriously doubt three losers with brains the size of a pin's head are any problem for me" Naruto finished " now run along and go fuck yourselves, I have better things to do than waste my time humoring you right now".

Naruto's goading got the desired effect " Your going to regret that demon! When we're done the village will make us hero's!" the apparent leader said as they advanced toward their target only for Naruto to spring his surprise.

One man suddenly sank into the earth up to his head making the other two jump back in shock, then another fell into his own hole with a yelp making the last one really nervous, as he turned around to try and get away thinking the demon was on him the tree he was under came alive as its vines shot at him like ropes and tied him up hanging above the ground. " Well now as much fun as this was I have place's to be, things to do," Naruto said walking past the helpless men.

" Hey! You can't just leave us here!" one of them shout making Naruto smirk under his mask as he looked over his shoulder at them " you two can stay there till you decide to bury this little idea you have of me, and you up in the tree…hang out for a bit, I'll send someone your way to get you three out…well if I remember" Naruto said casually making the three men sweat it out as he left them to the woods alone.

At that moment in the Hokage tower Sarutobi smiled seeing how Naruto handeled it, yes he would definitely change the village now that he was back.

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A brisk walk later and Naruto found himself at another training ground " GAI-SENSEI! YOU ARE TRULY AN INSPIRATION!" Naruto heard an insanely loud yell from the field caching Naruto's attention as he entered it. Naruto walked to fined the strangest sight he had ever seen before a man wearing green spandex with a bowl shape haircut and a virtual clone of the man were hugging with a sunset in the background as waves crashed onto the shore of the beach. Naruto stared for a moment longer before rubbing his eyes and again looking at them…nope still there.

After a moment more of watching this strange sight Naruto decided if he was going to make it to his destinations on time he would need to break up the little love fest apparently going on " uh excuse me" Naruto said getting the two strange people before him attention " ah another youth of the leaf village has graced us with his presence!" the man said with a gleaming smile " And it is the most youthful Naruto!"

Naruto looked at the man an odd way, clearly the man knew who he was but the same couldn't be said the other way around. " Have we met?" Naruto asked getting a laugh from the man " of course forgive me! The hokage informed those he felt necessary to your return I am Might Guy!" the man shouted getting a understanding nod from Naruto in understanding " YOSH! And I am his youthful student Rock Lee, with Gai-sensei's help I will become the greatest TaiJutsu specialist ever!" the mini clone shouted making Naruto sweat drop at the act.

"ummm ok" Naruto said hesitantly " and I cannot forget my two other youthful students TenTen and Neji" Gai shouted as the two mentioned students jumped behind the pair from the tree's " Gai-sensei we found that scroll you hid in the forest and …who is this Gai-sensei?" TenTen asked noticing Naruto for the first time.

" Haha! TenTen! Neji! You're in time to meet our youthful friend Naruto Uzumaki who has just returned to the village after his youthful journey to get stronger!" Gai shouted making Naruto wonder what I took to get someone as loud as the man in front of him to calm down before turning his attention to the others " hey nice to meet you" Naruto waved. Looking them over Naruto thought to himself his impressions of the newest members in the clearing _' well she seems normal enough, but that Hyuuga looks about as stuck up as the Uchiha'._

Seeing the look Naruto was giving him the Hyuuga prodigy gave a cold star back " something interests you Uzumaki?" Neji asked getting a Kakshi like smile in return " oh no you just remind me of someone is all" Naruto responded, after all he knew some clans were stuck up thinking they were better than most, and he really didn't want to get into a fight with a pissed off Hyuuga for no reason. Bu despite this passive move Naruto added to his thoughts of the Hyuuga in front of him _' yep just like the Uchiha'._

Naruto looked back over at Gai and his identical student " anyway I came here to ask if you knew a good place to get weights for training, mine are feeling light right now and Iruka-sensei told me you were the one to ask" that statement made the excitable man reach a new decibel in his volume " HAHA! So the youthful Iruka told you about me huh? Well good news my young friend! I have some extra weights you can use!" Gai shouted as he produced said weights from seemingly out of thin air.

Handing them to Naruto Gai continued his 'youthful' yelling " it is sad but Neji and TenTen were less enthusiastic than my Lee about using them for training" Gai said before seeing the look Naruto was giving the weights he had just been given " is something wrong?" Gai asked getting Naruto to shrug before looking up at him" you don't have anything heavier? I mean these are lighter than what I have on right now"

A fire seemed to ignite in Gai and Lee's eyes as they shouted out loudly upon hearing Naruto's words" GAI-SENSEI! NARUTO'S FIRES OF YOUTH ARE AS GREAT AS OUR OWN!" Lee shouted as his eyes blazed " YES LEE NARUTO SHARES OUR LOVE OF HARD WORK!" Gai shouted back before another tearful hug ensued getting sweatdrops from the rest of he group " do they do this often?" Naruto asked the girl next to him resulting in her sighing and covering her face with a hand and muttering a single word" everyday".

Lee suddenly jumped infront of Naruto and excitedly exclaimed " Naruto I have decided to make you my eternal rival just like Gai-sensei has with his eternal rival Kakashi-sensei!" Lee shouted making Naruto look at him and silently wonder to himself what kind of up bringing makes one act this way…then again he was a gennin and a Taijutsu specialist at that meaning he must be skilled…and if anything a challenge is something Naruto cant say no to.

"Well now Lee" Naruto said grinning under his mask as he pulled his sheathed swords off his back " lets see just how skilled the greatest TaiJutsu specialist really is" Naruto said tossing his swords over to TenTen who barely caught them reactively as Naruto winked at her " hey hold onto those for me will you, I think a pretty girl like you I can trust with my swords" Naruto said facing Lee once again and missing the blush and sputter for words TenTen was experiencing " Now Lee lets see if we're a good match" .

Lee happily nodded his excitement as he leapt away from Naruto and assumed his fighting stance. Looking over at the older man Naruto asked, " I'm sorry to ask this, but can you referee this short match?" Naruto asked getting a vigorous nod Gai " of course it is my pleasure to help ignite your youthful flames anyway I can!" Gai said getting between the two " this match is pure hand to hand, no weapons or jutsu allowed!" Gai said making the rules on the spot " first one to fall to the round loses, ready?"

Seeing the nod from both boys Gai signaled the fights start " HAIJIME!" at that word the two charged at each other. Nearing each other Lee raised his hand intending to go all out as he could with his weights on " I hope you are ready Naruto!" Lee yelled throwing the first punch, only for Naruto to turn on his heel as the punch neared and rounding the hit in one fluid movement. Effectively put behind his opponent Naruto attempted to land two hits with one of his other styles only for lee to dodge by leaping forward on his hands.

" Naruto you managed to dodge my first attack" Lee said grinning as he turned and faced Naruto again " you are not the average genin prospect" Naruto slide into the stance more firmly " you'll find you need to expect the unexpected from me Lee" Naruto replied, his eyes showing his mirth before the two disappeared into the tree's above.

The three other ninja in the field could only wait and listen to the sounds of fighting going on around them. They would occasionally get a glance of them through the tree's as Lee would do a spin kick only for Naruto to duck under it and throw an attack of his own. Then the two would disappear again behind the cover of the tree and the fight would once again be a mystery in its progress.

At one point in the fight Naruto landed and stood on the side of one of the tree's trunks close to the ground but the second he jumped away from it Lee had been on a collision course with him and the kick aimed for Naruto missed and instead severed the tree from where Lee's kick hit down causing the tree to fall to the ground in a loud crash.

" Gai-sensei we have to do something!" TenTen yelled seeing the damage they were causing to the forest around them " if we don't they could destroy the whole training field!" TenTen exclaimed making Gai cry " Yes! This is it! My Lee with an eternal rival like my own! I can se their youthful flames growing with each second that passes!" Gai yelled with fire in his eyes making TenTen sigh know it was a lost cause " we've lost him " she muttered before looking over, as Neji was walking away "Neji aren't you going to stop them?"

Looking back at him Neji coldly replied " if these two wish to waste their time then so be it, but I will not do so" before he turned and began to walk away from the fight and TenTen shook her head as she instead turned her attention back to the fight _' he's as fast as Lee is, or at least close to it'_ TenTen though as the two kept the spare going till she realized something important…Naruto had given her his swords…that she was holding…and had yet to see what they looked like.

After nearly ten minutes of nothing but the sounds of breaking branch's hits and kicks in the air the two combatants landed on the ground not far from where hey had began " Lee… your good" Naruto breathed out heavy from the exercise " you are too…Naruto" Lee heaved. Both were tired out from the constant fight they had been through giving no false fight between them, each kick and hit were put to end the match though they found it fun non the less.

" Lee I think we can agree to a draw for now right?" Naruto asked getting a nod from the strange boy in return " yes Naruto, though I must say you were an excellent opponent, you dodged many of my attacks with that style" Naruto nodded " actually Lee its four styles but I only used two of them, a style based off the air around us to dodge you and the fire style to attack, though you definitely have more speed than me, I was lucky on a few of those punches you sent me " Naruto said getting a laugh from the boy

" VERY WELL!" Gai shouted interrupting the two boys conversation " this youthful match is a draw you both did very well!" Gai exclaimed as both boys fell to the ground sitting " man I shouldn't have gone practicing those evasion movements before I came here" Naruto mutter laughing to himself before realizing he needed to retrieve his weapons.

Looking over Naruto saw something that made him stare for a good minute, the girl he had given his weapons to had seemingly pulled them out at some point and was now looking at them stary eyed with a slight blush to her cheeks and a bit of drool coming from the side of her mouth.

" Wow look at these swords, they're so perfect! The symmetry of the blades! The sharpness of the points! Even the handle is beautifully crafted in the smallest detail!" TenTen exclaimed as she ran her finger over the side of one of them " these are obviously a pair made by a master sword smith and their lightning country design, these kinds of swords are so beautiful but hard to use only those who take the time to perfect it can use them to their fullest! And even then it's rare to see them outside a Kumo ninja's arsenal!" TenTen exclaimed rubbing the flat end of the blades against her face " oooh I want it! I want it! I want it!" she said in only a way a girl gushing over something desired can before realizing she was being stared at and blushed in embarrassment.

" So your really into weapons huh?" Naruto asked as Lee jumped up and answered " yes TenTen is our weapon specialist, she can use any weapon she has to their fullest!" Naruto chuckled to himself looking back over at TenTen with a raised eye _' a weapon mistress huh? Well now that is interesting'_ Naruto thought to himself seeing as TenTen had returned to admiring his swords

" Ah yes TenTen's youth about weapons makes me so proud!" Gai yelled making Naruto shake his head in amusement. " Well I can't let you have them" Naruto said jokingly " but if you want I wouldn't mind training against someone so interested in weaponry" he finished making her grin and smile, not allot of people would risk training with her since so many ended up almost becoming pin cushions, Gai laughed excited at the turn of events " My most youthful Lee has found a worthy rival and TenTen has found a training partner!" Gai shouted as Lee joined him in another shout of youthfulness.

Ignoring the two behind him Naruto walked to TenTen took his weapons back " well now its been fun but I have to go" Naruto said looking at the strange Jonin " I'll see you soon Gai-sensei about my weights" Naruto said getting a thumbs up from the man " of course my young friend, I will help anyway I can to further your flames of youth as my youthful students will no doubt do!" Gai shouted making Lee respond with a very loud " Yosh!" of his own.

Naruto shook his head in amusement before his attention was drawn to the sky " hmmm just about time for the meeting" he muttered to himself as he turned around and jumped off into the trees towards where he disappeared into the forest " HAHA NARUTO"S YOUTH I MOST REFESHING!!! LEE! TO MATCH NARUTO"S FLAMES YOU MUT TRAIN EVEN HARDER NOW!!!!"

" HAI GAI-SENSEI!!!!"

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As Naruto distanced himself from the two loud individuals and their weapon happy friend he thought to himself of everything he had seen, so much was the same, all the people he knew were still around, the village had been mostly the same, and despite all its faults and those who disliked him Naruto found that he had actually…missed this place.

Naruto stopped and stood on the roof of one of the buildings smiling as he looked over the village and up to the hokage monument, his eyes stayed there looking at the four heads that made up the landmark, his eyes on the fourth head for a good few minutes longer than the others before he leapt off the buildings roof onto another as he headed to the hokage tower once again.

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" Yo old man!" Naaruto said sticking his head through the window of the tower getting strange looks from Iruka and Sarutobi " Naruto show some respect to Hokage-sama!" Iruka said resulting in Naruto sheepishly rubbing his neck " Iruka-sensei do you have to yell at me in front of him like this?" Naruto cheekily

Sarutobi chuckled and interrupted the two before him " Now Iruka Naruto used to call me that and I doubt he will be changing it anytime soon so lets get this out of the way" the third Hokage said as he looked at Naruto " so how was your first day back in the village?" Sarutobi asked getting Naruto to smile as the thoughts of the day passed through his head "it was a good day" Naruto said meaning every word " I missed it more than I thought I did, and its good to be back " Naruto said making the two smile in return seeing as Naruto told them.

" Naruto the reason I asked you to come here is very special" Sarutobi said making Naruto look at him curiously " I wanted to ask a favor of you Naruto, you see I need you to do a mission for the village" Naruto was instantly done joking around at the word mission, something the old man needed from him was to be taken seriously especially if he came to him after only coming back. " What are the mission details? " Naruto asked as Sarutobi pulled a paper from his desk and began to read.

" I have been getting reports that someone has been seen around the hokage tower late at night and at least one break in was attempted during the ANBU shift change, who ever it was has escaped by blending in with the local night district whenever discovered, I believe it to be someone we trust" Sarutobi said getting Naruto to look at him with serious eye's " you think it's a traitor?"

Sarutobi sighed and nodded " it is unfortunate but we have to consider the possibility one of our own has turned against us " Sarutobi said " we do have some information on it, the unknown figure has some form of ninja training to avoid the best of ours like that so the civilian population can be ruled out, and genin wouldn't be able to do something like this, that doesn't count you Naruto" Sarutobi said interrupting as Naruto was about to point out he had done exactly that and he wasn't a ninja officially at the time.

" Well then that leaves Chunin and Jonin, still allot of people" Naruto muttered thinking to himself " we can narrow it down by those on missions and in the hospital" Sarutobi said " and the general area of where they have been seen leads me to believe they work at the school" Naruto closed his eyes in thought for a minute thinking the information over in his head " I accept the mission" Naruto said making the hokage nod " Iruka will be your contact in the school, since he's your teacher it wont be unusual for you to be around him so much, report anything you find to him".

Naruto nodded in understanding as Sarutobi continued " if you discover who it is don't engage them unless you have Iruka with, you may be strong Naruto but in the village of the leaf we as connected as a leaf is to the others on the tree, we work together to protect and serve the village" Sarutobi said getting Naruto to nod " you have until you graduate the academy as your time limit on the mission, this is an A ranked mission" Sarutobi said getting a salute from Naruto.

" Is that all old man?" Naruto asked returning to his cheerful self making the old Hokage shake his head in amusement " no Naruto I also wanted to talk to you about paying you for the missions you did while you were gone " Sarutobi said hesitantly making Naruto shrug as he walked to the window " just pay me as you can old man, I don't think I would know what to do with one lump sum" Naruto smiled waving goodbye to two of his most precious people before jumping from the office making Sarutobi smirk "doesn't anyone use the door anymore?" he asked himself as he sighed " well paying Naruto that way certainly clears up much of my time".

Hearing the hokage's words Iruka gave a curious glance as he asked " why hokage-sama?is it allot of work?". Glancing up at Iruka Sarutobi picked a paper up from the table and handed it to the teacher " this is a rough estimate of what Naruto would get if paid all today and right now" he muttered as Iruka looked over the sheet a moment before his mouth dropped and eyes went wide a moment before whistling and saying just loud enough for the hokage to hear "that's allot of zero's"

Sarutobi could only silently nod in agreement

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Naruto walked the forest of the village, he could stand living in the village but the wilds of the forest, the shifting sands, even the barren earth had been his home for his time away, though he had stayed in many village's and hotels on his journey there was always something about the wild he enjoyed, and it would be a while before he could really live in the village for a long time.

He had in fact visited his old apartment building, and like Iruka and the Hokage had said they had taken care of it while he was gone, Naruto had tried to rest in his old bed for an hour but he couldn't sit still in such a confined room. This was one of the things he had noticed, his old apartment just didn't suite him anymore. So once Naruto reached his limit he did the only thing he could think of, he made a dozen Kage Bunshin's and after having them help him collect anything and everything in the apartment and sealing them into many scrolls he put into his backpack he left to find someplace new to take up residence in the village, fallowing where the wind and his instincts took him.

As Naruto walked around the village late in the moon lit night he soon happened to find himself across a large gated section of the forest, but Naruto could feel the life in the dense dark forest, his connection to the earth and plants told him it was a rich untamed, wild area filled with deadly and dangerous things, and he smiled to himself as he thought this would be an excellent place to stay for now. This was exactly the kinds of places he loved most, a place you have to fight to survive in, Naruto guessed Zabuza's taste in homes rubbed off on him in his training with him and Haku.

Naruto using his earth portion of his bloodline sunk into the ground and reappeared on the other side of the fence, completely ignoring the signs that told him to stay out and death awaited those who went into the area designated training field 44, also known as the forest of death.

Naruto walked through the thick brush of the forested area, finding it oddly relaxing for such a supposedly dangerous place " this place is awesome!" Naruto said looking at the great forest around him even as he could tell he was no longer alone. Naruto walked deeper and deeper into the forest before coming into a clearing.

Naruto stopped and smiled as some of the wild life seemed to have come out to greet him, a centipede the size of a anaconda, a tiger that could swallow a bull whole, and a snake that Naruto thought had probably been in this forest since it started growing to be that big naturally. Naruto knew that they were looking for a quick meal and if they were to kill him they would fight each other to get him, if being the key word.

Naruto smirked as he pulled his swords from his back and looking at them said, " Who's first?"

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Half an hour later

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Naruto whistled happily as he sat in front of the fire as a pot bubbled before him, cooking what was inside, finding this tree with what was probably once a predators lair long abandoned was a sheer stroke of luck, but Naruto never let a opportunity go to waste. Especially when it was so close to his three fresh kills and wouldn't have to have his clones carry the catch all the way across the forest.

" This is much better Naruto said smiling as he draped his new tiger fur blanket over his body. Indeed he wasn't wasting a bit of his catch as Naruto had made a cozy house for himself within the large protective hole in the tree, high above the forest floor and away from much of the dangerous wildlife, even so often his clones would walk in carrying more of the kills, the tiger's fur was an excellent blanket for himself as well as one covering a bed he had made from what he had made the tree grow with his bloodline, the centipedes rock hard armor was being used as simple bowls, and the snake gave him quiet a bit of weather resistant skin to use in a number of ways.

Besides that Naruto was enjoying a good amount of fresh meat from both the snake and tiger which he was cooking a bit of tiger in a stew with some edible plants he had found thrown in while having snake kabobs on the side. Naruto took do not waste to the extreme as he was having the meat he wasn't eating smoked by a few more clones.

" Well now " Naruto said to himself smiling as he picked up one of his kabobs and smiled as raised it and said " Itadakimasu" as he looked at his two necklaces he took off whenever he had a meal, the one Akane had given him and another of a white spiral. Naruto took a bite of the meat and smiled.

It was good to be home.

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Well everyone there you go! I hope you enjoyed it as I did writing it. I ca honestly say I was a bit put off killing Akane like that, but plans are being made and I am writing, I think everyone will be surprised with this story soon.

Daikirai- Hate

Akane- brilliant red

Akemi- bright beauty

Aya- colorful

Remember! Write a review so I can write a better story!


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